The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Grey and pearl – Bank Holiday Banners dates from 1883/1884. It is dated from the technique and signature. It was first exhibited in 1886.

Grey and pearl – Bank Holiday Banners, Fitzwilliam Museum

This work is catalogued fully in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 954).

Images

Subject

Site

Grey and pearl – Bank Holiday Banners, Fitzwilliam Museum

Not identified: the title suggests an English holiday resort, though Dieppe, France, and Scheveningen in the Netherlands have been suggested as the site. It appears to be a port, since several tall ships are visible in the distance.

Technique

Composition

Grey and pearl – Bank Holiday Banners, Fitzwilliam Museum

There are at least four copies of this watercolour by various hands, probably based on the Studio reproduction of 1903. ¹

History

Provenance

• By 1903: owned by Mrs Charles Julius Kino/Knowles (née Louisa Essinger) (b.1850, m.1874), Kensington Gore;
• 1959: bequeathed by her son Guy John Fenton Kino or Knowles (1879-1959) to the Fitzwilliam Museum.

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 954).

Exhibitions

• 1886: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (cat. no. 15) as 'Grey and pearl – Bank Holiday Banners'.
• 1889: “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 35) as 'Grey and Pink – Bank Holiday – Banners'.
• 1903: probably Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 36) as 'The Beach'.
• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 85) as 'The Beach'.

It was priced at a modest 30 guineas in 1889, but remained unsold, and was returned to Whistler after the exhibition by Wunderlich's on the SS Servia. ²

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 954) as 'Grey and pearl – Bank Holiday Banners'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (cat. no. 15) as 'Grey and pearl - Bank Holiday Banners'.
• “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 35) as 'Grey and Pink – Bank Holiday – Banners'.
• probably Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 36) as 'The Beach'.
• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 85) as 'The Beach'.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Andreeva, Galina, and Margaret F. MacDonald, Whistler and Russia, State Tretyakow Gallery, Moscow, 2006, pp. 48, 187 (cat. no. 108), repr. p. 48.

Journals 1906-Present

• Scott, William, 'Reminiscences of Whistler. Some Venice Recollections', The Studio, vol. 30, November 1903, pp. 97-108, repr. f.p. 97 as 'On the Seashore'.

Websites

• Fitzwilliam Museum website.