The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Blue and Gold: Robin Hood's Bay dates from 1897/1900. ¹

Blue and Gold: Robin Hood's Bay, Whereabouts unknown

It is dated from the technique and butterfly signature.

It was listed as 'Robin Hood's Bay (Blue & Gold)' by Whistler's sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), among paintings received from Hinde Street on the closure of the 'Company of the Butterfly' in 1901 (while Whistler was away in Corsica) and sent to William Heinemann (1863-1920), the London publisher, on 19 February 190l. ²

Images

Subject

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• 'Robin Hood's Bay (Blue & Gold)' (1901, R. B. Philip). ³
• 'On the Normandy Coast' (1904, Copley Society, Boston). ⁴
• 'Robin Hood Bay' (1908, Pennell). ⁵
• 'Blue and Gold: Robin Hood's Bay' (1980, YMSM). ⁶

'Blue and Gold: Robin Hood's Bay' is the preferred title. It is in England, not Normandy.

Description

Blue and Gold: Robin Hood's Bay, Whereabouts unknown

A beach scene in horizontal format. In the foreground a figure is stooping to look at something on the beach; several more people are walking along the edge of the sea. On the beach at left is a tall pole. The horizon is well above centre. White waves are breaking on the beach, and two ships are visible in the distance.

Site

Robin Hood's Bay, Yorkshire, England, UK. An early photograph (a silver gelatin print by William Edward Gray, 92 Queen's Road, Bayswater) in the Glasgow University Library is inscribed, not in Whistler's hand, 'Robin Hoods' Bay'. ⁷ The bay is five miles south-east of Whitby, Yorkshire. Although Whistler painted a small panel in Yorkshire about 1884 (Note in Green: Wortley y303) there is no record of a later visit.

The title change in 1905-1905, when it was owned by H. H. Benedict, is incorrect, as it does not show the Normandy coast.

Technique

Technique

Blue and Gold: Robin Hood's Bay, Whereabouts unknown

The colour of the panel is rather unusual: the light pinkish brown beach is touched with turquoise, and the sea, painted in thick ribbons of paint, is a mixture of turquoise and purple, under a lowering sky.

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

• 1901: possibly sold by the Company of the Butterfly to or through William Heinemann (1863-1920).
• By 1904: Henry Harper Benedict (1844-1935), New York;
• 1935: passed to his widow, Katherine Geddes Benedict (1879-1961);
• 1962: sold at auction, Sotheby's, London, 21 November 1962 (14) as 'On the Normandy Coast' and bought by Julius H. Weitzner (1896-1986), London art dealer, for £1100.
• 1965: with Knoedler, New York art dealers;
• 1968: sold by Knoedler's to Thomas Mellon Evans (1910-1997), New York;
• 1998: sold at auction, Christie's, New York, 21 May 1998, sale 8886 (lot 23) for $310,500.

'Robin Hood's Bay (Blue & Gold)' was listed by Whistler's sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), among paintings received from Hinde Street on the closure of the 'Company of the Butterfly' in 1901 (while Whistler was away in Corsica) and was sent to William Heinemann (1863-1920), the London publisher, on 19 February 190l. ⁸ It is not known if he actually owned it or acted as intermediary in selling it, or what. It may have been one of the pictures referred to by Whistler in a letter to Heinemann in February 1901, 'It was very nice of you to see to all that about the little marines with Fox for me.' ⁹ Fox may have been Samuel M. Fox (fl. 1886-1920), sculptor; a letter from Whistler indicates that Fox had been interested in buying work by Whistler but found the price too high. ¹⁰

The current whereabouts (2019) are unknown although it is assumed to be in a private collection.

Exhibitions

• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 7) as 'On the Normandy Coast'.

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

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. 424), plate 261, as 'Blue and Gold: Robin Hood's Bay'.

Authored by Whistler

• None,

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 7) as 'On the Normandy Coast'.
• 100th Anniversary Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1905
• (cat. no. 426) as 'On the Normandy Coast'.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 2, repr. f.p. 214 as 'Robin Hood Bay'.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITION:

• 18th, 19th and 20th Century American Paintings and Sculpture, Knoedler Galleries, 14 East 57th St, summer exhibition, 1965 (cat. no. 52) as 'On the Normandy Coast'.
• Spink, Nesta, Whistler: The Later Years, University of Michigan Art Gallery, Ann Arbor, 1978 (cat. no. 56).
• MacDonald, Margaret F., M., Notes Harmonies & Nocturnes. Small Works by James McNeill Whistler, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1984 (cat. no. 135) repr.

SALES:

• Sotheby's, London, 21 November 1962 (14) as 'On the Normandy Coast'.
• Christie's, New York, 21 May 1998 (lot 23) 'Blue and Gold: Robin Hood's Bay'.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• 'Blue and Gold', photograph (silver gelatin print), University of Glasgow, University Collections at http://collections.gla.ac.uk.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 434).

Other

• None.