The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Beach Scene may date from July 1896. ¹

Beach Scene, Whereabouts unknown

It is dated by the butterfly signature and the similarity of technique in Brown and Gold: The Curé's Little Class y455.

Images

Subject

Titles

Whistler's original title is not known. Alternative titles have been suggested:

• 'Beach in Holland' (1972, Fine Art Society). ²
• 'Beach Scene' (1980, YMSM). ³

'Beach Scene' is the preferred title, since the site has not been identified.

Description

Beach Scene, whereabouts unknown

A bleak windblown beach scene, in horizontal format. More than half the panel is taken up by the ochre/brown sand of the beach and dunes, with a single woman in black walking along towards the viewer, in the centre. In the distance at left are several figures by the shore and further away a pier stretches out to sea at left. Two sailing boats are visible, half hidden by the rising dune, at right, and one small ship beyond the pier at far left. There are pinkish and grey toned clouds on a pale blue sky.

Site

Unknown. The title 'Beach in Holland' was given to the painting in 1972 by the Fine Art Society, but appears to be based on a misconception: the distant masts and sail are on a boat, not a windmill.

Technique

Technique

Beach Scene, whereabouts unknown

The panel appears to have been prepared with a pale grey ground. The sky was painted freely with a rounded brush and paint almost as thin as watercolour. On the beach, thin paint is scrubbed across the surface in long, sweeping strokes, while fine details such as the pier and windblown figures are painted spikily with a pointed brush.

Conservation History

It was cleaned by Ben Johnson in 1974. ⁴ It is slightly abraded at left and right, possibly from the frame. There is a an area of damage that has been restored, below and to left of centre.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

• Date unknown: at some time in the collections of Lennox Boyd (dates unknown), and 'Pierce' (unidentified).
• 1971: sold by Colnaghi, London art dealers, to The Fine Art Society, London art dealers;
• 1974: bought from them by Davis & Long, New York art dealers;
• 1978: sold by Meredith J. Long (n/a), art dealer in Houston, Texas, through Davis & Long to Franklin Beekman Biggs (1916-2004), Santa Rosa Beach, Florida;
• 2004: F. B. Briggs, Middletown, Delaware, died in 2004, and his wife, Alice Baldwin Biggs (d. 2006), two years later.
• 2018: whereabouts unknown.

The early history of this painting is not known.

Exhibitions

As far as is known, it was not 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. 457), plate 339, as 'Beach Scene'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• Dunstan, Bernard, Painting Techniques of the Impressionists,, London and New York, 1976, repr. p. 100.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• The Aesthetic Movement and the Art of Japan, Fine Art Society, London, 1972 (cat. no. 68) as 'Beach in Holland', repr.

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. 494).

Other

• None.