The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Silver and Blue: Southampton was painted on 23 July 1887 at the Jubilee Naval Review, which marked the 50th anniversary of the accession of Queen Victoria (1819-1901).

Silver and Blue: Southampton, State Hermitage Museum

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1142). The entry has been revised.

Images

Subject

Site

Silver and Blue: Southampton, State Hermitage Museum

The Naval Review was held between two major ports on the south coast of England, Portsmouth and Southampton. During the day Whistler made at least three watercolours as well as a set of etchings.

Technique

Technique

Silver and Blue: Southampton, State Hermitage Museum

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1142).

History

Provenance

• 1891: acquired by John Chandler Bancroft (1835-1901);
• By 1904: owned by Harriet Burfort James Bancroft (Mrs J. C. Bancroft) (1846-1906);
• 1904: delivered to 'W. L. Putnam', 90 Ames Building, Boston – probably William Lowell Putnam (1861-1923);
• ca 1904: acquired by Sergei Shchukin (1854-1936), Moscow;
• 1918: the Shchukin collection was nationalised by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov alias Lenin (1870-1924);
• 1918: Silver and Blue: Southampton was transferred to the First Museum of New Foreign Painting, Moscow;
• 1923: transferred to the Museum of Modern Western Painting (Museum of New Western Art), Moscow;
• 1934: transferred to the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Exhibitions

• 1888: probably III. Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung, Königlicher Glaspalast, Munich, 1888 (cat. no. 32) as 'Blau und Silber: Southampton'.
• 1889: probably “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 21) as 'Silver and Blue – Southampton'.
• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 94) as 'Blue and Silver'.

It was priced at a very modest 20 guineas in 1889, but remained unsold, and was returned to Whistler after the exhibition by Wunderlich's on the SS Servia. ¹

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1142) as 'Silver and Blue: Southampton'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Probably III. Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung, Königlicher Glaspalast, Munich, 1888 (cat. no. 32) as 'Blau und Silber: Southampton'.
• Probably “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 21) as 'Silver and Blue – Southampton'.
• Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 94) as 'Blue and Silver'.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Andreeva, Galina, and Margaret F. MacDonald, Whistler and Russia, State Tretyakow Gallery, Moscow, 2006 (cat. no. 111).

Websites

• Hermitage Museum website at https://www.hermitagemuseum.org.