The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Blue and Brown: The Little Bay dated from 1881. ¹

Whistler visited Guernsey and Jersey in October 1881. On 9 October he told Matthew Robinson Elden (1839-1885) 'I propose to be away for 10 days or a couple of weeks.' ² Later he described the hazards of the trip to his sister-in-law, Helen ('Nellie') Euphrosyne Whistler (1849-1917):

'I only got here on Saturday morning - after a trip ... of the wildest - thirteen and a half hours of pitch and toss until it was a mere chance how I turned up - heads or tails! - At Guernsey then I chucked up the game and went ashore - There I stayed and struggled with wind and weather - and paintboxes with that perseverance that is the peculiarity of this family, as you will know - But what will you - quite hopeless - After being whisked about on the tops of very grand rocks and nearly blown into the sea canvas and all and dragging myself each evening back to the inn a dishevelled wreck of fright and disappointment I ceased a career only fit for an accrobat [sic] and came over to Jersey remembering that you had said it was comparatively flatter! ... but the weathercocks in the place have played me another trick and gone round, the lot of them, to the East - North East by East! - and awful it is - cold as Venice in winter - and everything hard as nails ... not a single picture have I managed yet - though I have tried ever so hard - but that you know is no comfort for - have I not written it! - 'mere industry is the virtue of the duffer'! - and poor as I am ... how is my journey to be payed [sic] for! ...

However I shall still try - for a few days longer ...

I have had the folly to bring with me lots of boxes and traps enough to produce a Gallery of chef d'oeuvres!' ³

According to T. R. Way, Whistler's trip to Guernsey and Jersey in 1881,

'resulted in several splendid oil-paintings, which I have never seen since; notably one of the vast deep blue wave, painted from the steamer near the Casquet rocks. I have a vivid recollection of the extraordinary liquidity and transparency of the water, so characteristic of the sea in those parts, all given, seemingly, in one great sweep of the brush.' ⁴

Images

Subject

Titles

Possible titles include:

• 'The Little Bay: blue and brown' (1884, Dowdeswell). ⁵
• 'Blue and Brown: The Little Bay ' (1980, YMSM). ⁶

The preferred title 'Blue and Brown: The Little Bay' is based on the 1884 title, but with the colours given first, for consistency.

Description

A view of beach and sea.

Site

Possibly St Brelade's Bay, Jersey. A watercolour of St Brelade's Bay in the south-west of Jersey in the Channel Islands was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1882 (cat. no. 342) as 'Blue and Brown - San Brelade's Bay'. It may have been related to this oil.

Note in Blue and Opal: Jersey, Freer Gallery of Art

Whistler appears to have painted at least three oils on his trip to Jersey and Guernsey:Blue Wave: Near the Casquet Rocks y231, Blue and Brown: The Little Bay y232, and possibly Bleu et argent: La Mer, Jersey y232a and several watercolours, Blue and Brown - San Brelade's Bay m0856 and Note in Blue and Opal: Jersey m0857 (which is the only surviving painting known from this trip) and probably Beach scene with rocks m0855.

Technique

Technique

Unknown.

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

Unknown.

Exhibitions

• 1884: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 46) as 'The Little Bay: blue and brown'.

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. 232) as 'Blue and Brown: The Little Bay'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 46) as 'The Little Bay: blue and brown'.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Myers, Kenneth John, Mr. Whistler’s Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2003, p. 92 (not in exhibition).

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• None.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 435).

Other

• None.