The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz is signed and dated '1862'.

Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz, Hill-Stead Museum

Whistler worked on several pictures during his stay in Guéthary, Basses-Pyrénées, during October and November 1862, but only Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz and A White Note y044 survive. ¹

Sketch of 'Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz', pen, Library of Congress

Early in October, Whistler described and drew the painting in a letter to Ignace-Henri-Jean-Théodore Fantin-Latour (1836-1904), commenting, 'La grande toile est peutetre assez bien d'arrangement mais ça marche si lentement que j'en suis au desespoir! Il est vrai qu'aujourdhui a été un de mes mauvais jours, et qu'hier j'en pensais mieux.' ² Translation: 'The big canvas is perhaps well enough planned, but it's going so slowly that I am at the point of despair! It's true that today was one of my bad days, and that yesterday I thought better of it.' Fantin-Latour was enthusiastic and, in reply to Whistler's letter, wrote:

'Eh! bien ton tableau d'après le croquis me parait très bien disposé, les lignes du ciel, de la mer la position des personnages tout cela me parait tres bien, mais très bien en ouvrant la lettre cela m'a fait de suite un bon effet, cette impression d'ornement pittoresque - qui fait qu'un bon tableau parait aussi agreable à l'oeil - à l'envers et dans tout les sens.' ³

Translation: 'Well! judging by the sketch your picture seems to me well-composed, the lines of sky, sea, the position of the figures all that seems very, very well done[,] on opening the letter it struck me immediately, this impression of picturesque ornament that makes a good picture appeal to the eye as well - upside down and any other way up.'

Whistler wrote back, complaining of his difficulties, and describing his paintings as 'grandes esquisses' (large sketches):

'Mon tableau ... traine; je ne travaile pas assez vite ! ... Du reste ces peintures en plein air d'apres nature ne peuvent être que de grandes esquisses … La mer a été immense depuis quelque temps! et j'ai en vain attendu une de la même couleur que celle que j'avais commencé!' ⁴

Translation: 'My picture ... is dragging; I am not working quickly enough! ... Apart from that these paintings in the open air from nature can only be large sketches. … The sea has been huge for some time! - and I have waited in vain for it to be the same colour as the one on which I started!'

Still, he obviously hoped to complete his pictures, and on 18 October he asked the Paris-based art dealer George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909) to order two picture frames, one for a 'sea piece of deep tone' and another for a commissioned painting. ⁵ But Whistler stayed on until, in mid-November, he told Fantin-Latour that he was giving up:

'J'ai eu une chance attroce! - La pluie! la pluie! et la pluie, ou bien le soleil stupide sans nuages, et une mer d'une platitude à vous faire cracher dedans ... et maintenant je me vois forcé d'abandonner ce tableau jusqu'à l'an prochain - je laisserai la toile içi et je reviendrai la finir - Ah mon cher decidement tu as raison - la peinture d'apres nature! on doit la faire chez soi!' ⁶

Translation: 'I have had terrible luck! - Rain! rain! and rain, or stupid sunshine without any clouds, and sea so flat you want to spit in it ... and now I am going to be forced to give the picture up until next year - I'll leave the canvas here and I'll come back to finish it - Ah, mon cher, you are absolutely right - painting from nature! needs to be done at home!'

He may have planned to return to Guéthary but never did so.

Images

Subject

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• 'Blue Wave' (1881, Whistler). ⁷
• 'Waves Biarritz' (1892, Whistler). ⁸
• 'The Blue Wave' (1892, Beatrice Whistler). ⁹
• 'Blue and Silver. Blue Wave Biarritz' (1892, Goupil). ¹⁰
• 'The Blue Wave' (1898, Society of American Artists, New York). ¹¹
• 'The Blue Wave' and 'Blue and Silver, The Blue Wave, Biarritz' (1905, ISSPG). ¹²
• 'Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz' (1980, YMSM). ¹³

'Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz' is the preferred title.

Description

Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz, Hill-Stead Museum

A seascape in horizontal format. In the foreground, great breakers crash on the shore; the blue waves beyond are flecked with white. The sky above is cloudy, slightly threatening.

Site

Guéthary, some four miles to the south of Biarritz, Basses-Pyrénées. Whistler appears to have had several pictures in progress during his stay in Guéthary, during October/November 1862, but only Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz and A White Note y044 have survived.

Whistler sent Fantin-Latour his address: 'Maison de la Croix. Chez Mons. Louis Daguerre. Guethary Basses Pyrenées. - Voici mon cher Fantin l'adresse du petit village, où depuis un mois je travaille à mes tableaux.' ¹⁴

Sitter

Sketch of 'Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz', pen, Library of Congress

Whistler originally included a Spanish sailor and several women, describing them as: 'Le matelot en Chemise rouge ... il a les jambes nues - parmi les femmes il y aura Jo toute claire et rose, aupres d'elle une vielle toute en noir.' ¹⁵

None of these figures appear in the final version, though there are traces of the figures just visible under the completed painting. 'Jo' was Joanna Hiffernan (b. ca 1843-d.1886). During the same stay on the coast, Joanna Hiffernan modelled for A White Note y044.

In the same letter to Fantin-Latour Whistler described how, while at work on this painting, he was swept out to sea and nearly drowned, but saved by one of his models, 'mon modèle à la chemise rouge'; he described it vividly to Fantin:

'[J]e me suis presque noyé l'autre jour! ... Je fus emporté par un courant feroce, qui m'entrainait dans ces brisants ... et si il n'avait pas été pour mon modele à la chemise rouge, je laisait la toile inachevée ... Je cris ... je disparais trois quatre fois - enfin on comprend! ... "le baigneur", (mon modele) entend appeler, arrive au galop, saute dans la mer comme un "terre neuve," parvient a m'attraper une patte, et les deux me retirent!' ¹⁶

Translation: 'I nearly drowned the other day! ... I was carried off by a strong current that dragged me into the breakers ... and if it hadn't been for my model in the red shirt, I would have left the painting unfinished ... I cried out ... I disappeared three or four times. Finally someone understood! ... The "bather" (my model) heard the call, came at a gallop, and jumped into the sea like a Newfoundland, managed to grab me by the "paw" and the two pulled me out!'

In 1862 a man wrote to Whistler from Bordeaux, thanking him for his kindness ('la bienveillance que vous voulez bien me montrer.') This letter was annotated (not very legibly) by Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896): 'Letter from Baptiste Fagonde, the man who saved Jimmie's life at 1862?' ¹⁷ Unfortunately the model has not been identified. It is possible that Whistler had hoped to re-hire Baptiste as a model in the following year.

Comments

In his letter to Fantin-Latour, cited above, Whistler cited 'Hook' as a painter of highly finished marine subjects executed in the studio. ¹⁸ James Clarke Hook (1819-1907) was a successful marine painter, elected RA in 1860. His oil paintings had the required amount of 'finish' demanded by the critics. Although he painted some pure seascapes his subjects usually had a strong 'genre' interest reflected in titles like O well for the sailor lad, That he sings in his boat in the bay, exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1860 (cat. no. 408). It is probable that Whistler, in spite of his taunts, regarded Hook as a rival, and was also to some degree influenced by him. In 1859 Whistler and Fantin-Latour could have seen Hook's 'Luff; Boy' (Private collection) at the RA, and the composition, dominated by the foreground figures, may have influenced the composition of Wapping y035.

Technique

Composition

Sketch of 'Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz', pen, Library of Congress

In a letter to Fantin-Latour, Whistler included a Sketch of 'Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz' m0307, annotated:

'Voiçi une idée un peu vague de l'affaire - / Matelot espagnol en rouge / chaloupe en danger dans les brisants / rochers / pecheur / femmes / Ciel - soir / mer foncée presque noir / des brisants qui se suivent de-puis le fond jusqu'au premier plan [sketch]

… Le matelot en Chemise rouge fera bien je crois, il a les jambes nues - parmi les femmes il y aura Jo toute claire et rose, aupres d'elle une vielle toute en noir - Les vagues sont superbes (en nature!) des brisants qui ont l'air d'etre taillés dans de la pierre noire, tellement ils sont solides! - et puis sur le plan du milieu les grandes lames vienent se briser contre les deux rochers separés que tu vois dans la mer.' ¹⁹

Translation: 'Here's a rather vague idea of what it is:/ Spanish sailor in red / rowing boat in danger in the breakers / rocks / fisherman // Sky - evening / sea, dark almost black / succession of breakers from background to foreground // women / rocks / ... The sailor in the red shirt will come out well, I think, his legs are bare - among the women, there will be Jo all bright and rosy, next to her an old woman all in black. The waves are wonderful (in nature!), with breakers that seem to be hewn from black stone, they are so solid! and then in the middle ground the large waves are breaking against the two separate rocks you see in the sea.'

The figures described in this letter were subsequently painted over, although some – particularly the red-shirted sailor – are visible through the thickly impasted paint that covers them. ²⁰

Technique

Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz, Hill-Stead Museum

In Whistler's letter to Fantin-Latour in mid-October 1862 he described progress on his painting:

'[J]e ne travaile pas assez vite ! - il me semble apprendre si peu ! Du reste ces peintures en plein air d'apres nature ne peuvent être que de grandes esquisses. il n'y a pas! - un bout de draperie flottante - une vague - un nuage - c'est là un instant - et c'est parti a tout jamais! on pose le ton vrai et pure on l'attrape au vol comme on tue un oiseau en l'air - et le public vois demande du fini! et il montre - Hook et Cie!' ²¹

Translation: 'I am not working quickly enough! I seem to learn so little! Apart from that these paintings in the open air from nature can only be large sketches. there is nothing for it! a piece of floating drapery - a wave - a cloud - it's there for a moment - and then it's gone for ever! you put down the true and pure colour tone you catch it in flight as you kill a bird in the air - and the public demands finish! and shows - Hook & Co.!'

There is considerable impasto in the thick paint on the waves, and a lighter touch in the sky. The Hill-Stead website suggests that this shows the influence of Jean-Désiré-Gustave Courbet (1819-1877):

'The composition of breaking waves on a rocky shore in The Blue Wave indicates the influence of Gustave Courbet; however, Whistler was beginning to create a style that was breaking away from what he decried as “that damned realism.” This emerging style is evident in the rocks as flat patches of brown instead of mottled from light to dark to create three-dimensional forms and details. The way in which he used light, wispy brush strokes to render the clouds in a blue-grey sky was a technique that would become a prominent feature in his later work.' ²²

Conservation History

It was cleaned and varnished by Stephen Richards (1844-1900), picture restorer, in 1892. The owner, J. C. Potter, had objected to this, but afterwards wrote, 'I must say, that on seeing the pictures, they appear to me immensely improved by the cleaning.' ²³ Whistler wrote afterwards to J. C. Potter:

'I cannot help writing to you to congratulate you upon my beautiful pictures! - Are they not really lovely? - Now that I see them again I am filled with wonder to think that you I should have personally known in a sort of easy comfortable friendly way - any one absolutely possessing such exquisite works! - And in what a perfect condition! - Now - for some of them were in an abominable state when they came to me - but I took great pains with them and they were cleaned under my own supervision - and varnished, and returned to the pure state in which they originally left my hands - Of course it is a rare chance that they should be cared for in this way by myself.' ²⁴

Frame

Frame size: 65.3 x 88.8 cm (25¾ x 35").

1862: On 18 October 1862 Whistler asked George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909) to order two frames for him in Paris:

'Will you have the great kindness to order them for me from your frame-maker? - The first is for a sea piece of deep tone, and I should like it to be something like the one I had for the painting I brought from Brittany last year ... richly carved, and bold - deep and rather broad; massive but not cumbersome, and well finished.

Not dear though, mon cher, if possible.

The canvass [sic] is one of the regular French dimension, "toile de soixante" - The second is a "toile de vingt" for which I want a very pretty frame, highly finished, brilliant and rich - deep also, and rather broad. This is an order and will hang in a drawing room, so that the finish must not be neglected.' ²⁵

A 'toile de vingt' was a canvas stretcher measuring either 50 or 60 x 73 cm (depending on whether it was a landscape or marine painting); a 'toile de soixante' for a marine painting would measure 81 x 130 cm. This frame would not have been suitable for Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz, which is 61 x 87.6 cm. However, Lucas undoubtedly ordered frames at Dutocq's on 21 October and went with Whistler to see them on 2 December 1862. ²⁶

1892: Thirty years later Whistler described the frame on Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz as 'the mean old abomination of years ago'. ²⁷ He had the painting cleaned and reframed for the 1892 Goupil exhibition. When he returned it, Whistler instructed the owner:

'I take this occasion to beseech you always to keep them under glass - The climate and smoke of England make it absolutely imperative - Look at the paintings in the National Gallery - with what precautions they are surrounded! I hope you are as pleased as I am with my new frames - at last the pictures have a dress worthy their own dignity and stateliness, Wherefore you may thank me for finally inventing them.' ²⁸

But, since he had not given permission for a new frame, Potter rejected the upgrade. ²⁹

1894: It is now framed in a Grau-style frame that the artist had commissioned for this piece and sent to Mr Pope in Cleveland. The framemaker was A. Hubert in the Rue Notre Dame des Champs, Paris:

'You will doubtless receive a letter from my frame maker, Monsieur Hubert, telling that he has undertaken the frame for the "Blue Wave" all right - as you wished … I said, by the way, that it is to be made ready for a glass - but that he is not to put a glass in, as of course if you like you can get one yourself in Cleveland.' ³⁰

When the frame arrived, Pope and his wife hung it with care: 'The frame for the "Blue Wave" came all right and I have it hung in the place of honor in our home, and the place of honor means the best place for lighting.' ³¹

History

Provenance

• 1867/1878?: sold by Whistler to Gerald Potter (1829-1908), London, for £50;
• 1894: Potter sold the painting to Goupil, London art dealers;
• 1896: bought from Goupil's by Alfred Atmore Pope (1842-1913), Cleveland, 18 December 1896, for £1000;
• 1913: bequeathed to Pope's daughter Theodate Pope (1867-1946) (Mrs John Wallace Riddle), Farmington, CT;
• 1946: on her death, 30 August 1946, her house became the Hill-Stead Museum.

It is not known when Gerard Potter bought the painting. Writing many years later, Whistler said 'Potter ... sold the "Blue Wave," he paid me £50 for - for £1000. to Mr. Pope.' ³² That price, £50.0.0, suggests that it was either sold in the late 1860s or in the period before Whistler's bankruptcy in 1879. The most likely is in 1878 or 1879, when a cheque for £60.0.0. from Potter was used in part payment of Whistler's bill from Foord and Dickinson. ³³ Potter certainly owned it by the mid-1880s. However, by July 1893 he was preparing to sell his pictures. Whistler wrote to D. C. Thomson, 'You had better tell me all about the Potter business - I do hope the things will be bought here - I want nothing to remain in England - Scotland is another thing.' ³⁴ However, Thomson's efforts to sell Potter's pictures met with little success. Whistler was irate:

'I hear that things are "very bad" in Glasgow! How did you get on? And why do you always drag about these pictures of Potters?? Why? Why? Why!!!

It annoys me very much to think that works of that distinction should be hawked in this persistent way from one end of the land to the other!' ³⁵

When the painting was sold in 1894, Whistler was predictably indignant:

'Hurrah Potter! - Well done Potter! -

That's a clear sweep of twelve hundred isn't it - or was it a little more? ...

Beautiful this combination of Patron & picture dealer! ...

You yourself my dear Patron, friend & speculator whose pictures came to the exhibition which was really your market, in sad need of care, threw the one or two frames in which they looked their best upon my hands! ... and cheaply shoved the beautiful "Blue wave" for which you expect another thousand doubtless, back into the mean old abomination of years ago.' ³⁶

Researching Potter's misdeeds, Whistler checked with D. C. Thomson, asking, 'Wasn't Potter asking £1000 or more for the Blue Wave?' ³⁷ By then Thomson had decided to send the painting to New York. ³⁸ When it was sold, Thomson refused to name the price or the owner. 'Not a word to be got out of you about the strange admirer who bought the Potters Blue Wave for the Thousand!', complained Whistler. ³⁹ Then, when he met the new owner, A. A. Pope, in Paris, the artist badgered the collector in order to find out the price!

'I have thought that I should like if you don't mind to have absolutely the facts about your purchase of the "Blue Wave" - and it did not occur to me last night in the midst of our pleasant talk to ask you - That is I took for granted that you paid through Thomson a thousand for the picture - Now was it one thousand pounds? or one thousand guineas? - I don't see why this should not belong to "history" - and I don't see why Thomson should be helped in wrapping up Mr Potter in mystery.' ⁴⁰

After Pope purchased Blue and Silver. Blue Wave Biarritz from Goupil & Co. in London in 1894, he wrote to his friend Arthur Harris Whittemore (1864-1927), a major collector of Impressionist paintings:

'I was taken with ‘The Blue Wave’ it seemed & seems masterful. Its [sic] about the size of a large Monet, in style its [sic] very like a Courbet … the color is different, blue instead of green, the waves more natural not suggesting tapestry & yet far from the photographic sea of Henry Moore.' ⁴¹

Thus Pope implies satisfaction in matching the work of Claude Oscar Monet (1840-1926) for size and Jean-Désiré-Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) for style and colour, while out-doing Henry Moore (1831-1895) by its dynamic realism.

Exhibitions

• 1892: Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892 (cat. no. 21) as 'Blue and Silver. Blue Wave Biarritz'.
• 1893: Possibly in [Exhibition], Boussod, Valadon & Cie., of the Goupil Gallery, London, at Wellington Studios, Glasgow, 1893 (no catalogue).
• 1894: Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Champ de Mars, Paris, 1894 (ex catalogue).
• 1898: Twentieth Annual Exhibition of the Society of American Artists at the Galleries of the American Fine Arts Society, New York, 1898 (cat. no. 285).
• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 54) as 'The Blue Wave'.
• 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. 29) as 'The Blue Wave' and in the deluxe edition as 'Blue and Silver, The Blue Wave, Biarritz'.
• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 55) as 'Bleu et argent. La vague bleue. Biarritz. – (Blue and Silver. The Blue Wave. Biarritz.)'

In 1864 Whistler discussed the paintings to be submitted to the Royal Academy with an Academician, the old family friend, William Boxall (1800-1879), and commented to Fantin-Latour that he felt the 'marine' was the least likely to be accepted ('La marine je suppose risque d'être sacrifié aux deux autres - mais nous verons.') ⁴² This may have referred to Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz, but it is not certain.

1886/1887:

Six paintings, detail, pencil, GUL Whistler MS W784

Whistler included a tiny sketch of Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz among Six paintings m1328 in a list of pictures for a proposed one-man exhibition at the Royal Society of British Artists during Whistler's Presidency (an idea that was abandoned when he was forced to resign in 1887). ⁴³

1892: Thus its first recorded exhibition occurred when the owner, J. C. Potter, agreed to lend it to Whistler's retrospective exhibition at the Goupil Gallery. ⁴⁴ On 15 March 1892 Whistler wrote describing the painting to his wife: 'Potters blue wave! - you never saw such a sea - absolutely sculptured out of the most brilliant blue and green & violet! so deep - so profound - so gay and so terrible!' ⁴⁵

For the catalogue entry Whistler selected reviews that refuted earlier criticism of his oeuvre in general; in this case he first quoted an 1878 review of the Grosvenor Gallery exhibition that said Whistler's work lacked 'finish', leaving off 'where other artists begin'. ⁴⁶ Secondly, he quoted Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921), who stated that Whistler lacked 'the power ... of drawing forms of water'. ⁴⁷

The Glasgow Herald on 19 March 1892 described it as 'a rolling sea of foam and azure à la Courbet' and The Scotsman on 21 March 1892 commented that in the "Blue Wave", 'he revels in robustness of colour and definition of sea and cloud in a way that recalls the canvases of Mr. J. C. Hook.' Whistler had himself considered it, in 1862, in relation to the more highly finished work of the successful sea painter James Clarke Hook (1819-1907). ⁴⁸ It is also true that the painting bears obvious comparison with the work of Whistler's early mentor, Jean-Désiré-Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), as mentioned by a later owner, A. A. Pope in 1894. ⁴⁹

Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz, photograph, Goupil Album, 1892, GUL MS Whistler PH5/2

Whistler was very pleased with the photograph for the Goupil Album in 1892, reproduced above: Potter's 'Blue Wave ... is beautiful', he wrote. ⁵⁰ He immediately asked D. C. Thomson to borrow it for exhibition in Paris, and J. C. Potter agreed to lend his pictures to two exhibitions, both in Paris and Munich. ⁵¹ Arrangements for the loans and insurance seem to have fallen through, so the painting did not go to the VI. Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung in Munich. ⁵²

1893: The Scotsman on 6 June commended the 'massive strength' of the 'Blue Wave', as seen in London in the previous year. The painting may have been shown in Glasgow later in 1893, when D. C. Thomson was trying but failing to find purchasers for Potter's pictures. ⁵³ It also appears on lists of possible exhibits in the World's Columbian Exposition, Department of Fine Arts, Chicago, 1893, but was not included. ⁵⁴

1894: According to Lafarge and Jaccacci it was shown in Paris, at the exhibition of the Societé Nationale in 1894, but it was not in the catalogue. ⁵⁵

1898-1905: Once in Pope's collection, it was shown in New York in 1898, and, after Whistler's death, in the Memorial shows held in Boston in 1904 and in London and Paris in 1905.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (cat. no. 41), plate 27, as 'Blue and Silver: Blue Wave, Biarritz'.

Authored by Whistler

• Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892 (cat. no. 21).
• Goupil Gallery and James McNeill Whistler, Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces [portfolio of photographs published after the Goupil Gallery Exhibition, March-April 1892], London, 1892, repr. pl. 14.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892 (cat. no. 21) as 'Blue and Silver. Blue Wave Biarritz'.
• Possibly in [Exhibition], Boussod, Valadon & Cie., of the Goupil Gallery, London, at Wellington Studios, Glasgow, 1893 (no catalogue).
• Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Champ de Mars, Paris, 1894 (ex-catalogue).
• Twentieth Annual Exhibition of the Society of American Artists at the Galleries of the American Fine Arts Society, New York, 1898 (cat. no. 285).
• Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 54) as 'The Blue Wave'.
• 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. 29) as 'The Blue Wave' and in the deluxe edition as 'Blue and Silver, The Blue Wave, Biarritz'.
• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 55) as 'Bleu et argent. La vague bleue. Biarritz. – (Blue and Silver. The Blue Wave. Biarritz.)'

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'Art and Artists', Globe, London, 2 March 1892, p. 6.
• Anon., 'Our London Correspondence', Glasgow Herald, Glasgow, 19 March 1892, p. 7.
• Anon., 'Latest News', The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 21 March 1892, p. 7.
• Anon., 'Latest News', The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 6 June 1893, p. 5.

Journals 1855-1905

• Alexandre, Arsène, 'J. McNeill Whistler', Les Arts, October 1903, pp. 22-32, at p. 30.
• Bénédite, Léonce, 'Artistes Contemporains: Whistler', Gazette des beaux-arts, vol. 33, 1905, pp. 403-10, 496-511; vol. 34, 1905, pp. 142-58, 231-46, in vol. 33 at pp. 498-500.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Duret, Théodore, Histoire de J. McN. Whistler et de son oeuvre, Paris, 1904, pp. 18-19, drawing repr. p. 24.
• Eddy, Arthur Jerome, Recollections and Impressions of James A. McNeill Whistler, Philadelphia and London, 1903, repr. f.p. 174.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., 'Joanna Hiffernan and James Whistler: an Artistic Partnership' in Margaret F. MacDonald (ed.), The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and Washington, 2020, pp. 15-31.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 95-96, 133; vol. 2, p. 127.
• Petri, Grischka, Arrangement in Business: The Art Markets and the Career of James McNeill Whistler, Hildesheim, 2011, pp. 59, 535, 542.
• Singletary, Suzanne M., James McNeill Whistler and France: A Dialogue in Paint, Poetry, and Music, London and New York, 2017, p. 64.
• Spencer, Robin, Whistler, New York, 1990, pp. 50-51.
• Sutherland, Daniel E., Whistler: A Life for Art's Sake, New Haven and London, 2014, pp. 74-75, 77.

Books, General

• La Farge, John & August F. Jaccacci, eds, Concerning Noteworthy paintings in American private collections, New York, 1909, p. 22.
• Moore, George, Modern Painting, London, 1893, p. 7.
• Tinterow, Gary, and Henri Loyrette, Origins of Impressionism, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994, p. 240, repr.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• None.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• Hill-Stead Museum website at http://www.hillstead.org.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 377).

Other

• None.