The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
YMSM 262
The Blue Band
Date
The Blue Band dates from Whistler's stay in St Ives between January and March 1884. 1
According to Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938), 'a fish shop with a blue band' at St Ives was painted both by Whistler and Menpes, and Whistler's painting was exhibited at Dowdeswell's in 1884 or 1886, as 'The Blue Band'. 2
None of the pictures exhibited at Dowdeswells in 1884 or 1886 appear to correspond with Menpes' description. However, Blue and Orange: Sweet Shop y263 was exhibited with 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (cat. no. 49) and has a striking pale blue band painted above the shop, so it may have been the same picture.
Images
The Blue Band, Whereabouts unknown
Blue and Orange: Sweet Shop, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Subject
Titles
Only one title is known:
- 'The Blue Band' (1904, M. Menpes). 3
- 'The Blue Band' (1980, YMSM). 4
Description
Described by Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938) as 'a fish shop with a blue band'. 5
Site
St Ives, Cornwall. It was a very busy fishing port and there were several fish-shops (if the subject was really a fish shop as described by Mortimer Menpes, and not a sweet shop).
Technique
Technique
Unknown.
Conservation History
Unknown.
Frame
Unknown.
History
Provenance
Unknown.
Exhibitions
- Possibly 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (cat. no. 49) as 'Blue and orange: Sweet Shop'.
Menpes wrote that 'The Blue Band' was originally priced by Whistler at 45 guineas, but that enthusiasm engendered by gooseberry wine induced his friends to run this up to £120.0.0. 6
Blue and Orange: Sweet Shop, I. S. Gardner Museum
Menpes may have been wrong about identifying 'The Blue Band' as a fish shop. It could have been Blue and Orange: Sweet Shop y263, which was priced at £50.0.0 by Messrs Dowdeswell until doubled to £100.0.0 by Whistler. 7
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. 262) as 'The Blue Band'.
Authored by Whistler
- None.
Catalogues 1855-1905
- Possibly 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (cat. no. 49) as 'Blue and orange: Sweet Shop'.
Journals 1855-1905
- Menpes, Mortimer, 'Whistler, the Purist', The Cornhill Magazine, new series, vol. 15, no. 90, December 1903, pp. 760-68, at p. 762.
Monographs
- None.
Books on Whistler
- Menpes, Mortimer, Whistler as I Knew Him, London, 1904, pp. 118-19, 140.
Books, General
- None.
Catalogues 1906-Present
- None.
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. 351).
Other
- None.
Notes:
1: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 262).
2: Menpes 1904 A [more], pp. 118-19, 140.
3: Menpes 1904 A [more], pp. 118-19, 140.
4: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 262)
5: Menpes 1904 A [more], pp. 118-19, 140.
6: Menpes 1903 C [more], at p. 762.
7: Annotated catalogue, 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (cat. no. 49), GUL Whistler EC1886.