The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
YMSM 279
The Green Headland
Date
The Green Headland dates from Whistler's sojourn in Cornwall between January and March 1884. 1 It is possible that it is Cliffs and Breakers y278.
Images
The Green Headland, Whereabouts unknown
Cliffs and Breakers, The Hunterian
Subject
Titles
One title has been suggested and one possible alternative:
- 'The Green Headland' (1884, Dowdeswell). 2
- 'A Green Note- The Cliffs, St. Ives – Cornwall' (1889, Wunderlich). 3
- 'The Green Headland' (1980, YMSM). 4
Description
Presumably this showed a headland jutting out into the sea, with waves breaking on the shore.
Cliffs and Breakers, The Hunterian
It is possible that it is Cliffs and Breakers y278.
Site
St Ives, a small fishing port in Cornwall, in south-west England, where Whistler stayed with Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) and Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938) in January-March 1884.
Technique
Technique
Unknown.
Conservation History
Unknown.
Frame
Unknown.
History
Provenance
Unknown.
Exhibitions
- 1884: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 37) as 'The Green Headland'.
- 1889: Possibly “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 28) as 'A Green Note – The Cliffs, St. Ives – Cornwall'.
'A Green Note – The Cliffs, St. Ives – Cornwall' was priced at 60 guineas in 1889, but remained unsold, and was returned to Whistler after the exhibition by Wunderlich's on the SS Servia. 5
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. 279) as 'The Green Headland'.
Authored by Whistler
- None.
Catalogues 1855-1905
- 1884: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (37) as 'The Green Headland'.
- 1889: Possibly “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 28) as 'A Green Note – The Cliffs, St. Ives – Cornwall'.
Journals 1855-1905
- None.
Monographs
- None.
Books on Whistler
- None.
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Unpublished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. 396, 399a).
Other
- None.
Notes:
1: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 279).
2: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 37).
3: Possibly “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 28).
4: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 279).
5: G. Dieterlen, H. Wunderlich & Co., to Whistler, 1 November 1889, GUW #07187.