Titles

Whistler's original title is not known. Variations on the title are as follows:

• 'Bathing Posts, Belle Isle' (1903/1915, Harold Wright). 1
• 'The Bathing Posts: Brittany' (1915, Colnaghi). 2
• 'The Bathing Posts, Brittany' (1980, YMSM). 3

Description

A seascape in horizontal format. The viewpoint is very low, probably from the beach, and the horizon line is just below centre. The sea is a deep greenish blue, with waves visible along the horizon. Although the beach itself is not included, the sea changes colour to a lighter shade near the shore, and a series of small waves are breaking to left of centre. There are two bathing posts (slightly twisted narrow tree trunks), painted red and white, at left and right, marking the boundaries for safe bathing. A sailing boat in the middle distance at left, and a larger sailing ship – possibly a fishing boat – on the horizon to right, are framed by the posts.

Site

Probably Belle Ile in Brittany. The existence of bathing posts suggests that it was a popular beach, with a defined area for safe bathing, where boats were perhaps excluded, and, on the beach, bathing huts were allowed. However, except for the title, the activity on the beach is not indicated in Whistler's oil.

Whistler's watercolour, Peasant women standing under a tree [M.1366], may originally have been called 'Breton Fisherwomen'. It includes two poles, and the foremost one was originally interpreted as a bare tree. However, the second bears a flag. It may actually represent Breton women on the beach waiting for the return of the fishing boats.

There are tall posts on the shore in some paintings by Eugène Louis Boudin (1853-1898), such as Beach Scene, Trouville (1863, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.), but they are more like flag-poles, and bear tricolour flags, and they are surrounded by fully dressed people standing and sitting on the beach. Some beaches had divisions by class, as well as activity, so Boudin's painting may represent a middle-class day-tripper area.

Comments

The Hunterian website commented:

'In the 1880s and 1890s Whistler worked 'en plein air' – in the open in front of his subject ... He worked on a small-scale, using easily portable panels. His colour range was narrow, but its tonal variety rich. The panels recall Corot's early paintings and the fluid sea pieces by his great French contemporary, Boudin.' 4