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

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Chelsea Shops: Yellow and Grey

Chelsea Shops: Yellow and Grey dates from the early 1880s. 1 It may have been painted in the spring of 1884, when Whistler told Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938) that he would be "at the 'shop' game" on the Thames Embankment in the early morning. 2


                Chelsea Shops: Yellow and Grey, Freer Gallery of Art
Chelsea Shops: Yellow and Grey, Freer Gallery of Art

                Street in Old Chelsea, Boston Museum of Fine Arts
Street in Old Chelsea, Boston Museum of Fine Arts

It was almost certainly first exhibited in Whistler's show of 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 11) with several other recent shop studies, Harmony in Yellow and Brown: Sunday [YMSM 248] and Street in Old Chelsea [YMSM 249] based in Chelsea, and, from St Ives, Blue and Orange: Sweet Shop [YMSM 263], An Orange Note: Sweet Shop [YMSM 264] and A Grey Note: Village Street [YMSM 265]. All may have been painted specifically for the Dowdeswell exhibition.


                Blue and Orange: Sweet Shop, I. S. Gardner Museum, Boston
Blue and Orange: Sweet Shop, I. S. Gardner Museum, Boston

                An Orange Note: Sweet Shop, Freer Gallery of Art
An Orange Note: Sweet Shop, Freer Gallery of Art

                A Grey Note: Village Street, The Hunterian
A Grey Note: Village Street, The Hunterian

Notes:

1: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 246).

2: [1/14 May 1884], GUW #10020.

Last updated: 31st December 2020 by Margaret