The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Marine probably dates from 1899 or 1900.

Marine, Private Collection

The Shore, Pourville, Ashmolean Museum

The fluid brushstrokes on the deep green sea, and the drier strokes on the bright grey and blue sky, suggest this date. It is dated from the technique and butterfly, which are similar, for instance, to The Shore, Pourville y521. It may therefore have been painted while Whistler was in Pourville in the summer of 1899.

Images

Subject

Titles

Whistler's original title is not known. The suggested title is:

• 'Marine' (1913, W. O'Leary). ¹
• 'Marine' (2015, Christie's). ²

Description

Marine, Private Collection

A seascape in horizontal format, showing a green sea breaking on a grey shore, under cloudy skies with patches of pale turquoise-blue. The beach runs at a slight diagonal from lower right up to left. The horizon line is slightly above centre. A very faint butterfly is at lower right.

Site

Marine, Private Collection

Marine, detail

The Shore, Pourville, Ashmolean Museum

Green and Silver: The Great Sea, The Hunterian

Possibly painted at Pourville on the French coast, like The Shore, Pourville y521 and Green and Silver: The Great Sea y518, reproduced above.

Technique

Technique

Marine, Private Collection

Thinly painted on the sky and shore, with thicker, creamy brushstrokes on the waves.

Marine, verso

Marine, verso

It is painted on a board with an uneven bevelled edge on the verso, as seen above.

Conservation History

Marine, detail

Marine, verso

A conservator, Simon Parkes, commented that when he examined it in November 2015, it was in 'unusually good condition' although it could be slightly dirty, and there was nothing to suggest the butterfly, though faint, was a later addition. ³

Frame

Marine, frame, detail

Not original.

History

Provenance

• 1913: bought from William O’Leary Fine Arts, Detroit, Michigan, by Henry Glover Stevens (1879-1934), Detroit;
• Date unknown: passed to his niece Alice Woodruff Owen (Mrs J. Owen) (1900-1988), Detroit, and to her daughter, Mary Owen Harper (d. 2015), Detroit;
• 2015: bequeathed to a private collector;
• 2016: sold at auction, Christie's, New York, 19 May 2016 (lot 78) as 'Marine', for $106,250, to the present owners.

An invoice, with rather illegible date, accompanying the painting, records the sale of 'Marine' to H. G. Stevens. The earlier provenance is unknown.

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• None.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

SALE:

• Christie's, New York, 19 May 2016 (lot 78, repr.) as 'Marine'.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• None.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• None.