The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

It has been suggested that Nocturne in Black and Gold: Entrance to Southampton Water could date from 1876, and should be identified with Nocturne in Black and Gold y167, which was exhibited in the 12th Exhibition, Society of French Artists, Deschamps Gallery, London, 1876 (cat. no. 150). ¹

A date of 1877/1878 is implied by the painter Edwin Arthur Ward (1859-1933), who, in his Recollections of a Savage, stated that Whistler had visited Southampton in the company of Thomas Sutherland (1834-1922), chairman of the P. & O. Line, at the time of his quarrel with Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) over Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room y178. Ward mentions a 'charming sketch reminiscent of the scene that night when they had embarked upon the trial trip on the new P. & O.', which Whistler painted 'some days after their return to town' and offered Sutherland, unsuccessfully, for 700 guineas. ²

Nocturne in Black and Gold: Entrance to Southampton Water, Freer Gallery of Art

The colour and condition of the painting make it extremely hard to judge the original technique and appearance, and therefore to date the painting, and the published records are confusing. It could date from the late 1870s or early 1880s.

It was definitely exhibited at the VI Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1882 (cat. no. 106). This might imply that it was a recent painting, but does not prove that it was. Later, William Heinemann (1863-1920) stated categorically that the 'moonlight on Southampton Water' which was at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1882 'was undoubtedly painted in the fall of 1881, when Whistler returned from Jersey and saw the moon rise at Southampton.' ³

Images

Subject

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• Possibly 'Nocturne, in Black and gold' (1876, Society of French Artists). ⁴
• 'Nocturne in Black and Gold. Entrance to Southampton water' (1882, Grosvenor). ⁵
• Possibly 'Nocturne. Black and Gold' (1892, Goupil). ⁶
• 'Southampton Harbor' (1897, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh). ⁷
• ' "Portsmouth [sic] Harbour", (Nocturne)' (1900, C. L. Freer). ⁸
• 'Southampton – Nocturne' (1901, Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo). ⁹
• 'Nocturne in Black and Gold: Entrance to Southampton Water' (1980, YMSM). ¹⁰

'Nocturne in Black and Gold: Entrance to Southampton Water' is the preferred title.

Description

Nocturne in Black and Gold: Entrance to Southampton Water, Freer Gallery of Art

A very dark night scene, in horizontal format. It appears to show the prow of a boat, and a mast, looming in the foreground, possibly with the entrance to a harbour beyond.

Site

Southampton, a major port on the south coast of England, UK. Whistler painted another Nocturne of Southampton about 1871/1872 (Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Southampton Water y117).

Technique

Technique

Nocturne in Black and Gold: Entrance to Southampton Water, Freer Gallery of Art

It is thinly painted on very coarse canvas.

Although it would appear to be unsigned, information from Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) suggests that the lantern on top of the mast was intended as a butterfly signature. ¹¹

Conservation History

It may have been the painting exhibited in Goupil's in 1892, which Whistler wanted to be cleaned by Stephen Richards (1844-1900), telling D. C. Thomson, 'Let Richards clean very delicately, & varnish - & keep until further notice.' ¹²

It was described in a Freer Gallery of Art conservation report of 1921 as a 'Virtually ruined canvas' with the 'Sky very much repainted'. However the varnish and overpaint was partially removed in 1921; it was relined and resurfaced in 1925; cleaned and surfaced in 1951; cleaned, varnished restretched, inpainted and again varnished in 1965. It is certainly extremely dark.

Frame

The style and whereabouts of the original frame are unknown.

Nocturne in Black and Gold: Entrance to Southampton Water, Freer Gallery of Art

1892: Grau Whistler frame, probably reframed for Whistler's 1892 retrospective exhibition: the frame still possesses a Goupil Gallery label.

History

Provenance

• 1880s: given in exchange for A Girl by a Shelf y048 to Aglaia Coronio (1834-1906), London;
• 1889: returned to Whistler;
• 1897: bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit;
• 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

On 15 August 1882 Whistler offered it to the Glasgow dealer John Craibe Angus (1861-1910) for 130 guineas and suggested selling it for considerably more:

'[I]f you seriously think that you would have a sale for the "Southampton Water". nocturne which was in the Grosvenor, I might send you that. - You might ask 200 guineas for it as usual: but if you buy it yourself right out, - you may have it for 130.' ¹³

According to T. R. Way, Whistler gave 'Southampton Water' to Aglaia Coronio (sister of Luke Ionides) in exchange for A Girl by a Shelf y048, but she did not like it:

'Whistler sent them the "Southampton Water". They said they did not care for it, it was so dark they could not see its beauties. His reply was that he "could not supply them with eyes to see with," and eventually he repaid the sum which he had originally received.' ¹⁴

On 2 June 1889 Whistler wrote to Mme Coronio offering to replace the 'dark Nocturne' with 'another Thames picture or landscape of any kind', and she accepted Grey and Silver: Old Battersea Reach y046. ¹⁵

A label from the London art firm of Goupil, on the back of the painting, suggests that Whistler tried to sell it through that firm in London. It is possible that it was one of the Nocturnes that D. C. Thomson of Goupil's was trying to sell in August 1891, and was exhibited by Goupil's in the following year, still with no owner named. ¹⁶

However, in 1896, it was bought by C. L. Freer, who wrote from Detroit in December 1896, 'I beg you to let me know by return mail how much I may be permitted to remit you in payment for the beautiful Nocturne - a great treasure!!' ¹⁷ Whistler sold 'Nocturne Southampton' to Freer in July 1897 for 600 guineas, and Freer wrote, 'delighted to enclose herewith draft on London, for six hundred guineas, payable to your order, in partial payment for the Nocturne "Southampton". I say partial payment because money cannot do more in connection with such a great work of art.' ¹⁸

Exhibitions

• 1876: Possibly 12th Exhibition, Society of French Artists, Deschamps Gallery, London, 1876 (cat. no. 150) as 'Nocturne, in Black and gold'.
• 1882: VI Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1882 (cat. no. 106) as 'Nocturne in Black and Gold. Entrance to Southampton water'.
• 1892: Probably Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892 (cat. no. 32) as 'Nocturne. Black and Gold'.
• 1897: Second Annual Exhibition, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1897 (cat. no. 237) as 'Southampton harbour'.
• 1901: Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901 (cat. no. 101) as 'Southampton – Nocturne'.

The painting exhibited in 1876 has not been identified with certainty, and so has been catalogued separately as Nocturne in Black and Gold y167.

The description in The Athenaeum in 1882 gives some idea of the original appearance of the painting exhibited at that time:

'It is a mystery, the charm and fidelity of which we acknowledge, composed of the darkest grey and dusky olive tints, among which a beacon lamp rises on a pole above a space of apparently irresolvable gloom, but which may be a cottage or a light vessel. Subtly graded gleaming bars and long lines of golden dots in the distance attest the existence of Southampton Water and the town lights.' ¹⁹

Several newspapers were less flattering, including the Bradford Observer, which, on 1 May 1892, described it as 'being in reality a flat mass of blue-black colour with a dab or two of light thrown in'.

Nocturne in Black and Gold: Entrance to Southampton Water, Freer Gallery of Art

It appears to have been exhibited in the Whistler retrospective at Goupil's in 1892. D. C. Thomson told Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896): 'The Lady Meux is on the other end wall, with the Venice & Madame Coronios Nocturne on each side.' ²⁰ In fact Mme Coronio had returned the Nocturne to Whistler, and no owner was named in the catalogue. The painting was indeed available for sale, and a Goupil label on the back of the painting confirms that Whistler tried to sell it through that firm.

By the terms of C. L. Freer's bequest to the Freer Gallery of Art, the painting cannot be lent to another venue.

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. 179), plate 95 as 'Nocturne in Black and Gold: Entrance to Southampton Water'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Possibly 12th Exhibition, Society of French Artists, Deschamps Gallery, London, 1876 (cat. no. 150) as 'Nocturne, in Black and gold'.
• VI Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1882 (cat. no. 106) as 'Nocturne in Black and Gold. Entrance to Southampton water'.
• Probably Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892 (cat. no. 32) as 'Nocturne. Black and Gold'.
• Second Annual Exhibition, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1897 (cat. no. 237) as 'Southampton Harbor'.
• Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901 (cat. no. 101) as 'Southampton – Nocturne'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'In the Studios', London Daily News, London, 29 March 1882, pp. 5-6.
• Anon., 'Grosvenor Gallery', Globe, London, 1 May 1882, p. 6.
• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery', Sheffield Independent, Sheffield, 1 May 1882, p. 2.
• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery', Bradford Observer, Bradford, 1 May 1882, pp. 3-4, at p. 4.
• Anon., 'London Day by Day', Daily Telegraph & Courier (London), 19 March 1892, p. 5.
• Anon., 'Mr Whistler's Works', The Graphic, London, 26 March 1892, p. 26.

Journals 1855-1905

• The Athenaeum, 6 May 1882, p. 576.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Merrill, Linda, With Kindest Regards. The Correspondence of Charles Lang Freer and James McNeill Whistler, 1890-1903, Washington, DC, and London, 1995, nos. 28, 30, 31, 34, pp. 111-12, 115-16, 119-20.
• Petri, Grischka, Arrangement in Business: The Art Markets and the Career of James McNeill Whistler, Hildesheim, 2011, pp. 518, 636.

Books, General

• Lawton, Thomas, Freer: a Legacy of Art, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 1993, p. 46.
• Marchant, Wm. and Co., A Reply to an Attack Made by One of Whistler's Biographers on a Pupil of Whistler, Mr Walter Greaves and his Work, London, 1911, pp. 20-21.
• Prettejohn, Elizabeth, Art for Art’s Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting, New Haven and London, 2007, p. 1780.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, pp. 97-98.
• Ward, Edwin A., Recollections of a Savage, London, 1923, pp. 263-65.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Stubbs, Burns A., Paintings, Pastels, Drawings, Prints and Copper Plates by and attributed to American and European Artists, together with a List of Original Whistleriana in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1948 (97.21).
• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, pp. 124, 293, plate 27.

EXHIBITION:

• Merrill, Linda, et al., After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2003, pp. 26, 106-07 (not in exhibition).
• Siewert, John, 'Art, music, and an aesthetics of place in Whistler's Nocturne paintings' in Lochnan, Katharine, Turner, Whistler, Monet, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Tate Britain, London, 2004-2005, pp. 141-47, at p. 144, fig. 52 (not in exhibition).

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Newspapers 1906-Present

• Heinemann, William, 'Whistler and Mr Greaves', The Times, London, 26 May 1911, p. 15.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://www.si.edu/object/fsg_F1897.21a-b.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 389).

Other

• Siewert, John, 'Whistler’s Nocturnes and the Aesthetic Subject', PhD thesis, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1994.