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

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YMSM 412
Dark Blue and Silver

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1893
Collection: Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, CT
Accession Number: 46-1-0021
Medium: oil
Support: canvas
Size: 50.8 x 72.4 cm (20 x 28 1/2")
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: none

Dark Blue and Silver

Dark Blue and Silver dates from September 1893. 1 According to Whistler his exhibits at the Grafton Gallery in 1894, Violet and Silver: A Deep Sea [YMSM 411], Dark Blue and Silver [YMSM 412] and Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers [YMSM 413] were 'three sea pieces - quite new - fresh and beautiful.' 2

Dark Blue and Silver, Hill-Stead Museum
Dark Blue and Silver, Hill-Stead Museum

It was painted 'at the Isle de Bréha, Brittany' – off the northernmost point of Brittany – in September 1893, according to the first owner of the painting, Alfred Atmore Pope (1842-1913) of Cleveland, Ohio. 3

Notes:

1: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 412).

2: Whistler to A. Graves, [January 1894] formerly dated [12/15 December 1893], GUW #01834.

3: Quoted by La Farge, John & Jaccaci, August F. (eds.), Noteworthy Paintings in American Private Collections, New York, 1907, pp. 30-32.

Last updated: 21st November 2020 by Margaret