Violet [Note?]...The Return of the Fishing Boats

c. 1885

James McNeill Whistler

Associated Names
James McNeill Whistler

Artist, American, 1834 - 1903

This painting shows a tan beach with four people looking out towards a calm sea. The people are painted with small blotches of black, red, blue, and gray paint. Far from the shore, sailboats can be seen on the water near the high horizon line, where the gray-blue water blends in with a blue sky filled with soft, diffused clouds. The brushstrokes are light and fluid, painting the different shapes with little detail. The off-white paper below is visible in many places.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Richard A. Canfield, Providence, Rhode Island. (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), 1914. Charles S. Carstairs [1865-1928], 1915. (sale, Christie's, London, 19 December 1972, no. 58). (Basket & Day); acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon; gift 1991 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1991

  • Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1991, 240-241, color repro.

Bibliography

1986

  • Mellon 1986, 122-125, fig. 10.

1991

  • Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1991: p.240.

1995

  • MacDonald, Margaret F. James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1995, no. 1036.

Inscriptions

center right in watercolor: [Whistler's device]; upper center on verso in graphite: No 10

Wikidata ID

Q64580666

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