The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Green and Silver – The Three Clouds dates from between 1885 and 1887 and was exhibited in 1888 and 1889.

Green and Silver – The Three Clouds,Thomas Colville Fine Art

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1174). The record has been updated and revised.

Images

Subject

Site

Not identified.

Technique

Technique

Green and Silver – The Three Clouds,Thomas Colville Fine Art

The washes were allowed to merge into each other so that the horizon line and the edge of sea are softened and hazy, and some brushstrokes were allowed to run into others, creating atmospheric effects in the sky, complex wave patterns, and texture on the beach. The butterfly and the figures, on the other hand, were added precisely with a small pointed brush in shades of brown and grey.

History

Provenance

• 2013: sold by Boisgirard-Antonini, Paris, at Drouot Richelieu, Salle 4, Tableaux Modernes, Paris, 12 June 2013 (lot 23).
• 2017: Thomas Colville Fine Art, New York.

The earlier provenance is not known, although it was exhibited in Munich in 1888 and New York in 1889, before being returned to Whistler.

Exhibitions

• 1888: III. Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung, Königlicher Glaspalast, Munich, 1888 (cat. no. 29) as 'Grau und Silber: Die drei Wolken'.
• 1889: “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 18) as 'Green and Silver – The Three Clouds'.

The Home Journal, 15 March 1889, described it as 'clever in indicating cloud effects'.

It was priced at 80 guineas in 1889 (which was among the higher prices), but remained unsold. It 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. 1174) as 'Green and Silver – The Three Clouds'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• III. Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung, Königlicher Glaspalast, Munich, 1888 (cat. no. 29) as 'Grau und Silber: Die drei Wolken'.
• “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 18) as 'Green and Silver – The Three Clouds'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• The Epoch, New York, 8 March 1889.
• Home Journal, New York, 15 March 1889.

Books, General

• Foster, Kathleen A., American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent, Yale University Press, 2017, repr. fig. 293, p. 249

Catalogues 1906-Present

SALE:

• Drouot Richelieu, Tableaux Modernes, Paris, 12 June 2013 (lot 23).