Description
In the early 1860s, James McNeill Whistler began to develop an art-for-art’s-sake aesthetic, eschewing narrative or naturalistic details to focus more intently on formal concerns. In 1865 the artist traveled to Trouville, a French resort town, where he painted with Gustave Courbet and experimented with a series of increasingly simplified seascapes. The high horizon line and broad expanses of muted color in this spare composition reveal Whistler’s interest in Japanese woodblock prints. The sweeping, horizontal brushstrokes and restrained palette, limited to pale greens and soft grays, reinforce the painting’s innovative, flattened perspective.
Provenance
Mrs. Charles W. Deschamps (Christina Deschamps, born Dodds, 1845–1926), London, by November 1873 [lent to London 1873]; sold back to the artist, April 1891 [letter from Charles W. Deshamps to James McNeill Whistler, dated April 8, 1891, GUW 00803]; consigned to Boussod, Valadon & Cie/Goupil Gallery, Paris, by July 1892 [letter from David Croal Thomson to James McNeill Whistler, dated July 12, 1892, GUW 05753; letter from Whistler to Thomson, July 1892, GUW 08332; and letter from Thomson to Whistler, dated July 23, 1892, GUW 05754]; sold to Théodore Duret (1838–1927), Paris, 1892; consigned to Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, by July 1901; sold to Mrs. Potter Palmer (Bertha Palmer, born Honoré, 1849–1918), Chicago, July 1901 [according to Young, MacDonald, Spencer, and Miles 1980; lent to Boston 1904 and Paris 1905]; by descent to her sons, Honoré Palmer (1874–1964) and Potter Palmer II (1875–1943), 1918; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.
Accession Number
81572
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
51.5 × 77.2 cm (20 1/4 × 30 3/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Honoré and Potter Palmer
