Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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Violet and Blue: The Little Bathers, Perros-Guirec

Violet and Blue: The Little Bathers, Perros-Guirec was painted in the autumn of 1893.

It was originally thought to date from the autumn of 1888, when Whistler and his bride were in Brittany on their honeymoon. 1


                Violet and Blue: The Little Bathers, Perros-Guirec, Fogg Art Museum
Violet and Blue: The Little Bathers, Perros-Guirec, Fogg Art Museum

However, the butterfly signature indicates a much later date, in the early 1890s. The date of 1893 is confirmed by a letter from Whistler to D. C. Thomson in 1895: 'The little panel was painted in Brittany when we were there - at the same time as those last sea pieces exhibited the other day at the Champ de Mars.' 2 The Whistlers were in Brittany in September 1893, when Whistler painted Violet and Silver: A Deep Sea [YMSM 411], Dark Blue and Silver [YMSM 412], and Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers [YMSM 413] – which were the pictures shown at the Salon of the Champ de Mars in 1894.

Notes:

1: 'Possibly in the autumn of 1888' according to YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 382).

2: 24 October 1895, GUW #08379.

Last updated: 22nd October 2020 by Margaret