Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• 'A Red Note: Fête on the Sands, Ostend' (1887, Royal Society of British Artists). 1
• 'Note rouge – La Plage d'Ostende' (1888, Durand-Ruel). 2
• 'Ostende' (1890, Exposition Générale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels). 3
• 'The Fete on the Sands – Ostend' (1904, Copley Society, Boston). 4
• 'A Red Note: Fête on the Sands, Ostend' (1980, YMSM). 5

For the sake of consistency with other titles, 'A Red Note: Fête on the Sands, Ostend' is the preferred title.

Description

A beach scene in horizontal format. A crowd of figures are gathered all along the shore on a grey day, carrying several huge flags. The flags include the Belgian flag at left, a blue flag bearing a golden flower, and a British naval flag, the 'Red Ensign'. On the horizon, at right is a large ship, possibly a warship.

The Terra website suggests that the blue flag bears a fleur-de-lis but if so it is very misshapen. It also suggests links between Whistler and the nationalities represented by the flags:

'The painting thus commemorates the expatriate American artist’s relationship to his two adoptive countries, England and France, between which he divided his long career. Moreover, the work’s title, one of many by which the artist drew an analogy between painting and music, announces the primacy of simple color over narrative or imposed meaning as the painting’s subject. A Red Note: Fête on the Sands, Ostend was included in one of a series of solo exhibitions Whistler pointedly titled "Notes" – "Harmonies" – "Nocturnes", in which the Terra Foundation’s A Note in Red: The Siesta ... was also shown.' 6

Site

The beach at Ostend, one of the main fishing and ferry ports in Belgium, and a popular tourist destination.