The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Low Tide was probably painted between 1884 and 1886. ¹

Low Tide, Freer Gallery of Art

La Petite Maison rouge, The Hunterian

It is dated from the butterfly signature, the technique, and similarity to other paintings of the period, particularly La petite maison rouge y281, though both of these paintings are difficult to date.

Images

Subject

Titles

Whistler's original title is not known. Only one title has been suggested:

• 'Low Tide' (1912, National Museum, Washington). ²
• 'Low Tide' (1980, YMSM). ³

Description

Low Tide, Freer Gallery of Art

A beach scene in horizontal format. A wide expanse of beach leads to several small boats drawn up high on the beach, and sheds and houses behind them.

Site

A view of the harbour at St Ives, Cornwall, with the Sloop Inn visible to right of the black timber shacks. ⁴

Technique

Technique

Low Tide, Freer Gallery of Art

It is painted with expressive brush strokes, with a small brush, in thin paint on an off-white prepared panel. The colour is richer than in many of Whistler's panels of St Ives.

Anna Gruetzner Robins comments on Whistler's use of experimental colour:

'In Low Tide … a view of the lee of St Ives Harbour, ... intense blue colour, swept along the rim of the two upturned boats, counters the diagonal strokes of liquid grey-brown of the sand. Flat wedges of light yellow pick out the Sloop Inn and other buildings along the front. Low Tide is about choices: the cluster of fishermen round the wooden shack are hardly noticeable and flat areas of colour engulf this picturesque scene. ⁵

Conservation History

Freer Gallery files record that the varnish was removed in 1921, the painting was resurfaced in 1931, cleaned and varnished in 1937, resurfaced in 1938, and cleaned and surfaced in 1951. There appear to be areas of paint loss in the top half of the picture, as if some small pieces of paint had flaked or been knocked off. The paint at the edges of the panel is considerably abraded.

Frame

Low Tide, Freer Gallery of Art

Large Dowdeswell frame, probably made for Whistler's 1884 exhibition [14.1 cm]. ⁶

History

Provenance

• 1885: bought from Messrs Dowdeswell by Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934);
• 1902: bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit;
• 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

It was probably exhibited in Whistler's one-man show 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 and bought by H. S. Theobald in the following year, but the catalogue number has not been identified. Theobald was almost certainly the collector described by Whistler as having bought a number of paintings after the exhibition: he wrote to Walter Dowdeswell (1858-1929): 'you must arrange with the man who bought the lot that remained over after the exhibition of the "Flesh color & grey", to let his collection go with me to America.' ⁷

In June 1902, Whistler sent C. L. Freer a telegram 'Theobald paintings at Marchants') informing him that the paintings owned by Theobald were apparently for sale. ⁸ It was bought in the following month by C. L. Freer for $750.

Exhibitions

• Possibly shown in 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 or Sixty-third Annual Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1886.

Robins and Myers suggested that it was exhibited as Sands: Blue Note y268 in 1884 (cat. no. 4). ⁹

Although it was almost certainly exhibited at Dowdeswell's with the other paintings bought by Theobald (Chelsea Shops: Yellow and Grey y246, Red and Pink: La Petite Mephisto y255, The Sea and Sand y288, The White House y289, Blue and Grey: Unloading y296, Violet and Silver: The Great Sea y298, Black and Emerald: Coal Mine y302, Note in Green: Wortley y303, Harmony in Brown and Gold: Old Chelsea Church y305, Red and Blue: Lindsey Houses y306, Nocturne: Silver and Opal - Chelsea y309) it is not actually possible to identify it from any of the titles in the catalogue.

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

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. 280) as 'Low Tide'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Possibly 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 or Sixty-third Annual Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1886.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Holden, Donald, Whistler Landscapes and Seascapes, New York, 1969, repr. pl. 23.
• Robins, Anna Gruetzner, A Fragile Modernism. Whistler and his Impressionist Followers, London and New Haven, 2007, pp. 26, 181n.15, repr. fig. 18.

Books, General

• Gilbert, Henry, Roy Ray, and Colin Orchard, All About St. Ives: A Guide to the Town, its Galleries and Art History, [St Ives], 2006, p. 59.

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, p. 16 (02.156).
• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, pp. 137, 294, pl. 41.

EXHIBITION:

• Selection of Art Objects from The Freer Collection, National Museum, Washington, DC, 1912 (cat. no. 7).
• Myers, Kenneth John, Mr. Whistler’s Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2003, pp. 82, 92, repr. p. 36.
• Lochnan, Katharine, Turner, Whistler, Monet, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Tate Britain, London, 2004-2005, p. 144, fig. 52 (not exhibited).
• Tovey, David, St Ives Art pre-1890: The Dawn of the Colony,Tate St Ives, St Ives, 2008, p. 55 (not exhibited).

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1902.156a-b.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 419).

Other

• Parkerson, Sarah Lawrence, Variations in Gold: The Stylistic Development of the Picture Frames used by James McNeill Whistlers, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007.