The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

A Shop with a Balcony probably dates from 1899, although it could date from earlier in the 1890s. ¹

A Shop with a Balcony, The Hunterian

In October 1899 Whistler was staying at the Hotel Lefevre in Dieppe, and wrote on 20 October to Rosalind Birnie Philip, 'The "red shop" is getting something wonderful!' ² It is very likely that this refers to A Shop with a Balcony. The slightly asymmetrical composition of a single arched facade seen squarely from the front is typical of Whistler’s shopfronts.

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one title is known:

• 'A Shop with a Balcony' (1960, Arts Council). ³
• 'A Shop with a Balcony' (1980, YMSM). ⁴

Description

A Shop with a Balcony, The Hunterian

A facade of a shop with an arched frontage, in vertical format. A large woman and large dog stand in the open door to right of centre, and the many-paned windows show faint glimpses of goods. A boy or man is standing on the pavement at left, and a woman and baby are seen in the door opening onto the small balcony above the shop. The shop is painted a warm purplish plum colour, the shutter, brown, and the plastered wall in the arch above, pale yellow ochre.

Site

This has been identified as a side street in Dieppe, off the Place du Moulin à Vent. Dieppe was an important port, ferry terminal and holiday destination on the French coast. Whistler stayed first at the Hotel Lefevre and then at the Pavillon Madeleine. In October 1899, Whistler said 'the place is deserted and Dieppe is empty.' ⁵ He complained of the weather:

'It should have had a huge tube of cadmium yellow spurted in its face by one of that group! -

Of course you do not suppose I look at the landscape of the place! No - it is another matter - but even that is scarcely to be got at for more than half an hour a day! and often not at all.' ⁶

Technique

Technique

A Shop with a Balcony, The Hunterian

The composition was first drawn in graphite pencil on the grey primed panel. The undercoat was applied with noticeable vertical strokes, which accentuate the vertical structure of the building. Thin tints of colour were applied sparingly, leaving areas of grey undercoat showing. The precision of the architecture is softened by the blurred edges of the thinly tinted areas of colour, and by a number of figures cutting across the outlines. Some of these (the woman and child on the balcony in particular) were painted carefully with spots from a small rounded brush. The colours are warm shades of flesh-pink and cream, and reddish browns, glowing in contrast to the grey undercoat.

Frame

A Shop with a Balcony, The Hunterian

A Shop with a Balcony, frame detail

Flat Whistler frame. ⁷ Size: 45.5 x 37.4 x 3.0 cm.

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler’s studio at his death and bequeathed to his ward and executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1958: bequeathed by her to the University of Glasgow.

Exhibitions

• It was not exhibited, as far as is known, 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. 526), plate 337, as 'A Shop with a Balcony'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Enaud-Lechien, Isabelle, 'Whistler et la France', Le musée miniature, Paris, 1995, pp. 44-45, repr.
• Spencer, Robin (ed.), Whistler: A Retrospective, New York, 1989, p. 359, repr. pl. 116.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Young, A. McLaren, James McNeill Whistler, Arts Council Gallery, London, and Knoedler Galleries, New York, 1960 (cat. no. 58).
• American Painting 1865-1905, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1961 (cat. no. 76).
• Primitives to Picasso, Royal Academy of Art, London, 1962 (cat. no. 219).
• Spencer, Robin, James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 1969 (cat. no. 56).
• Pickvance, Ronald, James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903): An Exhibition of Works from the University of Glasgow Collection, Nottingham University Art Gallery, Nottingham, 1970 (cat. no. 14) repr. pl. vl.
• Young, A. McLaren, Glasgow University's Pictures, Colnaghi, London, 1973 (cat. no. 108); painting by W. R. Sickert (cat. no. 109).
• Whistler: Themes and Variations, Montgomery Art Gallery, Pomona College, Claremont, CA; Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, CA; Stanford University Museum of Art, CA, 1978, pp. 50, 80.
• ホイスラー展. Whistler Exhibition in Japan, Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo; Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo; Shizuoka Prefectural Museum, Shizuoka, 1986, p. 193 (cat. no. 39).
• Taylor, Hilary, British Impressionism, Nottingham Castle Museum, 1989, pp. 18, 36, 63 (cat. no. 3).
• Bowness, Sophie, Anna Greuzner Robins and John Willett, The Dieppe Connection. The Town and its Artists from Turner to Braque, Art Gallery and Museum, Brighton, 1992, pp. 70, 82 (cat. no. 88).
• Dorment, Richard, and Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1994-1995 (cat. no. 171)
• Tedeschi, Martha, and Britt Salvesen, Songs on Stone: James McNeill Whistler and the Art of Lithography, Chicago, 1998.

Journals 1906-Present

• Dempsey, Andrew, 'Whistler and Sickert: A Friendship and its End', Apollo, vol. 83, January 1966, pp. 30-37, at pp. 32, 37, repr. fig. 4.
• Coignard, Jerome, 'Whistler. L'exposition du Musee d'Orsay', Beaux Arts, 1995, pp. 52-53, repr.

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk/#/details/ecatalogue/41295.
• Art UK website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• None.