The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Sea Coast may have been painted in 1897, possibly on the north-west coast of France.

1883/1884: It was originally dated from a photograph to between 1883 and 1884. ¹

1894/1900: The butterfly signature is clearly of a later date, in the 1890s; however, it could have been signed for sale in 1899/1900.

The Sea Coast, State Hermitage Museum

Harmony in Blue and Silver: Beaching the Boat, Étretat, Fogg Art Museum

1897: It may have been painted in Étretat, at the same time as Harmony in Blue and Silver: Beaching the Boat, Étretat y483. The pale beige/grey beach would fit with that area.

Images

Subject

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• 'Seroe more' (grey sea) (1921, Pertsev). ²
• 'The Sea Coast' (1969, Kroll). ³
• 'The Sea Coast' (1980, YMSM). ⁴
• 'The Sea Coast. Marine. Arrangement en gris et noir' (2006, State Tretyakow Gallery). ⁵

Since Whistler's original title is not known, 'The Sea Coast' is the preferred title.

Description

The Sea Coast, State Hermitage Museum

A beach scene in horizontal format. It is divided roughly into three horizontal bands: a pale grey cloudy sky, a rich green sea, with a fishing boat and nets on the shoreline at left, and a pale beige beach. There are several small figures, possibly working at rolling or repairing nets.

Site

Possibly painted in the popular fishing and tourist town of Étretat in the Seine-Maritime department of the Normandie region in north-western France.

Technique

Technique

The Sea Coast, State Hermitage Museum

MacDonald commented,

'The paint is as thin as varnish, revealing the grey priming. Each vigorous brush-stroke depicts a strake of the boat or nets, or a furled sail, It was probably painted in a single session, to catch a fleeting impression.' ⁶

Conservation History

The left and right edges are almost bare of paint, and slightly abraded. It is likely that the panel was inserted in a box, held by slats of wood, either for security when it was being painted, or afterwards, to allow it to dry.

History

Provenance

• 1899/1903: bought from Gaston Bernheim-Jeune (1870-1953), Paris, by Sergei Shchukin (1854-1936);
• 1918: First Museum of Modern Western Art (State Museum of New Western Art), Moscow;
• 1931: transferred to the State Hermitage, St Petersburg.

The Shchukin collection included this oil, Orange Woman y310 and The Blue Sea y380, which were bought in Paris before being taken to Moscow. His collection was nationalised by Lenin in 1918, and the paintings were transferred to the First Museum of Modern Western Art, Moscow, and later to the State Hermitage.

Exhibitions

No exhibition is known in Whistler's lifetime, although it is perfectly possible that it was exhibited, possibly in France.

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. 274), plate 186, as 'The Sea Coast'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• MacDonald, Margaret, 'James McNeill Whistler', in Andreeva, Galina, and Margaret F. MacDonald, Whistler and Russia, State Tretyakow Gallery, Moscow, 2006, pp. 16-57, at pp. 46-47, repr. p. 47 (cat. no. 19).

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Kroll, A. E., The State Hermitage. English Paintings. Catalogue, Leningrad, 1969, pp. 109-10, repr. p. 110 as 'The Sea Coast'.
• 'Государственный музей нового западного искусства' (Gosudarstvennyĭ muzeĭ novogo zapadnogo iskusstva) ['Museum of Modern Western Art: Illustrated Catalogue'], Moscow, 1928 (cat. no. 64).
• Pertsev, P. P., Shchukinskoe sobranie frantsuzskoi zhxvopisi, Moscow, 1921, p. 116 as 'Seroe more' (grey sea).

EXHIBITION:

• Andreeva, Galina, and Margaret F. MacDonald, Whistler and Russia, State Tretyakow Gallery, Moscow, 2006 pp. 46-47, repr. p. 47 (cat. no. 19).

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• Hermitage Museum website at https://www.hermitagemuseum.org, as 'Seashore: Grey and Black'.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• None.