The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
YMSM 147
Nocturne en gris et or
Date
Nocturne en gris et or is presumed to date from 1871/1879, when most of Whistler's Nocturnes were painted. 1
Nocturne: Grey and Gold - Westminster Bridge, Glasgow Museums
Nocturne: Grey and Gold – Chelsea Snow, Harvard Museums
For instance, among the known Nocturnes of similar title, Nocturne: Grey and Gold - Westminster Bridge y145 dates from 1872/1874, and Nocturne: Grey and Gold - Chelsea Snow y174 from 1876.
However, Nocturne en gris et or could be later. It was first exhibited at the Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887 (cat. no. 181). It is possible that it was the unlocated Nocturne in Grey and Gold: Chelsea Fish Shop y336 (shown in Dowdeswell's in 1886), which may have dated from the early 1880s.
Images
Nocturne en gris et or, Whereabouts unknown
Nocturne: Grey and Gold – Westminster Bridge, Glasgow Museums
Nocturne: Grey and Gold – Chelsea Snow, Harvard Museums
Subject
Titles
Only one title is known:
- 'Nocturne en gris et or' (1887, Petit). 2
- 'Nocturne en gris et or' (1980, YMSM). 3
Description
Unknown.
Site
Unknown.
Technique
Technique
Unknown.
Conservation History
Unknown.
Frame
Unknown.
History
Provenance
- Unknown.
Exhibitions
- 1887: Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887 (cat. no. 181) as 'Nocturne en gris et or'.
Identifying the picture is impossible although there are several possible candidates. Unidentified nocturnes with a similar title include Nocturne in Grey and Gold y116, which was exhibited by Whistler in 1874, and Nocturne in Grey and Gold y155, which was probably not available for exhibition in 1887. The early history of Nocturne: Westminster - Grey and Gold y144 is unknown, so it is another possible candidate.
Perhaps the most likely is the unidentified Nocturne in Grey and Gold: Chelsea Fish Shop y336, which was shown in Whistler's one-man show of 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886, and could well have been available for exhibition in Paris in the following year.
Nocturne: Grey and Gold - Chelsea Snow, Harvard Museums
Nocturne: Grey and Gold - Chelsea Snow y174 was exhibited by Whistler in Munich in 1888, but there is no mention in extant correspondence with the owner, Alfred Chapman (1839-1917) of it having been in Paris the previous year. It is even less likely that Chapman's Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Southampton Water y117, which was shown at different times as either blue or grey and gold, was this painting.
Nocturne: Grey and Gold - Westminster Bridge, Glasgow Museums
The Wyndham's Nocturne: Grey and Gold - Westminster Bridge y145 was shown at Whistler's retrospective in 1892 but there is no record of it having been lent for the earlier Paris show.
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. 147) as 'Nocturne en gris et or'.
Authored by Whistler
- None.
Catalogues 1855-1905
- Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887 (cat. no. 181) as 'Nocturne en gris et or'.
Journals 1855-1905
- None.
Monographs
- None.
Books on Whistler
- None.
Books, General
- None.
Catalogues 1906-Present
- None.
Journals 1906-Present
- None.
Websites
- None.
Unpublished
- None.
Other
- None.
Notes:
1: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 147).
2: Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887 (cat. no. 181).
3: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 147).