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

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Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers

Titles

The suggested titles are follows:

  • 'Blue & Violet, – Among the Rollers' (1893, Whistler). 1
  • 'Violet & Blue – among the rollers' (1893, Whistler). 2
  • 'Violet and Blue – Among the Rollers' (1894, Grafton Galleries). 3
  • 'Study of the Sea from a boat' (1904, Copley Society, Boston). 4
  • 'Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers' and 'Study of the Sea from a Boat' (1980, YMSM). 5

'Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers' is the original and preferred title.

Description


                    Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers, Detroit Institute of Arts
Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers, Detroit Institute of Arts

A seascape in horizontal format, showing deep green blue waves under a cloudy sky of pale turquoise and pinkish grey clouds. The waves are white-topped, and there are two sailing ships (one near. one far) on the horizon at right.

Site

The artist wrote to his picture restorer, Stephen Richards (1844-1900), that he had 'painted the panel out in the full sea.' 6

It was probably painted in Brittany in September 1893 (see The Bathing Posts, Brittany [YMSM 409]) although on 10 December 1893 Whistler wrote to D. C. Thomson of Goupil's, London dealer, that it 'was painted in Brittany a few weeks ago.' 7

The Art Journal described the three sea-pieces exhibited at the Grafton Galleries in 1894 incorrectly as having been painted the previous autumn on the coast of Normandy. 8 Geffroy was probably correct in saying all three (which he saw in Paris) were painted in the summer on the coast of Brittany (see Violet and Silver: A Deep Sea [YMSM 411]). 9

Notes:

1: Whistler to D. C. Thomson, [16 October 1893], GUW #08249.

2: Whistler to D. C. Thomson, (20 October [1893], GUW #08247.

3: Fair Women, Grafton Galleries, London, 1894 (cat. no. 70).

4: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 13).

5: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. nos. 413, 517).

6: [16 January 1894], GUW #02903.

7: Whistler to D. C. Thomson, [10 December 1893], GUW #08287. St James's Gazette, 12 December 1893.

8: Art Journal March 1894 [more] , at p. 89.

9: Geffroy 1895 [more] , at pp. 140-41.

Last updated: 12th November 2020 by Margaret