The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Sea, Pourville probably dates from July or August 1899. ¹ According to a note written by Whistler's sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), on the back of the panel, it was painted at Pourville in 1899.

The Sea, Pourville, Terra Foundation for American Art

The Sea, Pourville, No. 1, The Hyde Collection

Grey and Gold: High Tide at Pourville, Freer Gallery of Art

It was probably painted around the same time as several other seascapes including The Sea, Pourville, No. 1 y516 and Grey and Gold: High Tide at Pourville y523.

Images

Subject

Titles

One title is known, as follows:

• 'The Sea, Pourville' (1960, Arts Council). ²
• 'The Sea, Pourville' (1980, YMSM). ³

Description

The Sea, Pourville, Terra Foundation for American Art

A beach scene in horizontal format. A windy day, with pale blue patches between the grey and white clouds. The green sea is fairly calm, with white breakers inshore. There is a ship out at sea, at right. Three children are paddling in the shallows; two people, wrapped perhaps in towels, are at the water's edge at left; and a dog, a woman and child are walking on the beige/brown beach at right.

Site

Pourville, a seaside town on the French coast. The Terra Foundation for American Art website suggested:

'The high vantage point of The Sea, Pourville suggests that it may have been painted from the balcony of his hotel room at the Pavillon Madeleine. Staying close to his lodgings, Whistler worked with easily portable materials, such as small panels, that allowed him to paint outdoors and complete a work with relative ease.' ⁴

Technique

Technique

The Sea, Pourville, Terra Foundation for American Art

The sea, brownish green with a deep green horizon, is painted less thickly and energetically than in Whistler’s other Pourville panels. The figures are painted delicately with a fine pointed brush, barely touched with pink and white, the figure on the right echoing the green and brown shades of the sea.

The Terra Foundation for American Art website comments:

'Painted with thinly applied pigment, through which the texture of the supporting panel is visible, the scene consists of three broad, unbounded bands of cloud-filled sky, green water enlivened by the white crests of waves, and softly mounded sand. … Whistler’s muted palette and signs of a windy, overcast day evoke the coming chill of autumn. Despite the painting’s summary execution, sketch-like intimacy, and diminutive scale, the illusion of a receding expanse of sea is fully realized through such elements as the cloud forms and the darker line of green on the horizon, where a distant ship appears; delicately painted, the wind-tossed garments of the promenading figures lend a note of anecdotal realism to the scene. The quickly sketched figure of a small dog on the beach at the right is echoed at lower left by three spots that compose the stylized butterfly motif the artist used as his distinctive signature.' ⁵

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

36.8 x 45.7 x 3.5 cm (14 1/2 x 18 x 1 3/8")

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler’s studio at his death and bequeathed to his ward and executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1954: sold by her to Colnaghi, London art dealers, 20 December 1954 (a/c no. A3195);
• 1955/1960: sold by them to Muriel Thetis Wilson (Mrs Richard Warde) (1871-1964);
• 1965: after her death, auctioned, her sale, Christie's, London, 5 March 1965 (lot 141B), and bought by Colnaghi's for 2700 guineas on behalf of a private collector.
• Date unknown: Knoedler-Modarco S.A., New York.
• By 1985: Daniel J. Terra (1911-1996);
• 1985: Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago, Illinois;
• 1992: given to the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Exhibitions

• 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. 520), plate 333, as 'The Sea, Pourville'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• Regard sur cinq années d'expositions (Five years of Exhibitions at a Glance), Terra Foundation for the Arts, Chicago, 1997, repr. p. 70.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITION:

• Young, A. McLaren, James McNeill Whistler, Arts Council Gallery, London, and Knoedler Galleries, New York, 1960 (cat. no. 74) as ‘The Sea, Pourville’, repr.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Notes, Harmonies, and Nocturnes: Small Works by James McNeill Whistler, M. Knoedler and Co., Inc., New York, 1984 (cat. no. 122) repr.
• Atkinson, D. Scott et al., A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1987.
• An American Revelation: The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1988.
• Whistler and His Circle, Minnesota Museum of Art, Minneapolis, 1989.
• Gerdts, William H. et al., Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny; Terra Foundation for the Arts, Chicago, 1992, pp. 38-39, fig. 27.
• Regard sur James Abbott McNeill Whistler (James Abbott McNeill Whistler at a Glance), Musée d'Art Américain, Giverny, 1994.
• American Treasures: Chase, Whistler and the Prendergasts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1996-1997.
• The Decorative Form: The Aesthetic Movement, Arts & Crafts and the Asian Influence in American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1999.
• Rivières et rivages: les artistes américains, 1850–1900 (Waves and Waterways: American Perspectives, 1850–1900), Musée d'Art Américain, Giverny, 2000.
• Selections from the Permanent Collection: American Artists in France, 1860–1910, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 2001.
• A Place on the Avenue: Terra Museum of American Art Celebrates 15 Years in Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 2002-2003.
• Modern Harmonies: Whistler Reflects on his Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 2003.
• Studied Abroad: Painted Impressions from the Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 2003-2004.
• Le Temps des loisirs: peintures américaines (At Leisure: American Paintings), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, 2007-2008.
• Un été au bord de l’eau: Loisirs et impressionnisme, musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen, and la Réunion des musées nationaux, Grand Palais, Paris, 2013 (cat. no. 30), p. 81, repr.
• American Impressionism: a New Vision, 1880-1900 (Une nouvelle lumière: les américains face à l’impressionnisme/ Impresionismo Americano) (French & Spanish titles), Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, and Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, 2014; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2015.
• Gallery Installation, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 2015-2016.

SALE:

• Christie's, London, 5 March 1965 (lot 141B) as 'The Sea, Pourville'.

Journals 1906-Present

• 'J. W.', 'The Sale Room', Apollo, vol. 72, May 1965, p. 421, repr.
• 'Whistler at Knoedler,' Apollo, vol. 120, December 1984, p. 428, pl. XI.

Websites

• Terra Foundation for American Art website at https://collection.terraamericanart.org.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• None.