20 June 2006

Dear Mr Cottone

In my opinion (as far as I can tell from a photograph -and your scans are very good indeed) this is a painting by James McNeill Whistler entitled �Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers�. The history is as follows:

Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers
This oil was painted in Brittany, probably in September 1893. The butterfly signature and technique confirm this date. 

 The artist wrote to his picture restorer, Stephen Richards, that he had 'painted the panel out in the full sea- and some of the spray got upon it- and the salt made it a very long time in drying- and the last time I examined it- some two or three months ago, the surface seemed to me still sticky-'[1]

 [2]Thomson decided to try to sell it in Glasgow, and according to the Glasgow Herald, 'a small seascape, the deep blue-green water holding patches of white foam' was exhibited in Wellington Street Studios in Glasgow in 1893 by Boussod, Valadon & Cie. (associated with the Goupil Gallery, I.ondon; catalogue untraced).[3]
It was not sold, and according to the St James's Gazette (6 Dec. 1893), 'a fine sea-piece . . . one of his earlier period . . . a panel painting of cabinet size, a stormy sea of deep (lapis-lazuli) blue, full of clever work and of beautiful colour' was on exhibition at the Goupil Gallery in London; on 11 December the firm repeated Whistler�s statement,  that the 'sea-piece' had been 'painted in Brittany a few weeks ago' (St James's Gazette, 12 Dec. 1893).

The identity of the painting is confirmed by the fragment of press-cutting from the St James�s Gazette that is attached to the back board of the painting, and by Whistler�s Paris address of 110 rue du bac, which is written on the board.

In January 1894 Whistler wrote to Stephen Richards, asking him to collect the painting from the Grafton Galleries, 'Bring it home and if you think it dry enough, give it a rapid and even coat of varnish - for I know it would be much more brilliant with it '.[4]

It was exhibited at the Grafton Galleries, London, in 1894 as 'Violet and Blue - Among the Rollers'.[5] It was then exhibited in Paris, at the Salon of the Societ� Nationale in 1894 (cat. no. 1183).

Whistler offered it to E. G. Kennedy, New York dealer, describing it as  'a smaller panel, and a beauty' at 250 guineas.[6] On 22 September 1894 he informed Kennedy that 'The third sea piece has sold - You remember the little one, "Among the Rollers" on panel that hung in the Champs de Mars � It is bought for �210'[7]. He does not give the owner�s name.

It was probably also the oil painting lent by Mrs Martin Brimmer to the Whistler Memorial exhibition in Boston 1904 (cat. no. 13) as 'Study of the Sea from a boat', and described, probably incorrectly, as on canvas. This was later 'on loan in Boston Museum' in 1904, according to C. L. Freer's annotated copy of the 1904 Boston Memorial Exhibition catalogue[8]. A photographic detail of one of the walls of the Boston exhibition of 1904 shows this to have been a small horizontal seascape. [9] Unfortunately, the definition of the photograph is not sufficient to identify the picture. In a catalogue of the 1904 Boston exhibition, originally owned by Frank Gair Macomber and now in the Boston Public Library, the title is given as 'The Sea', the size is given as 19.0 x 28.0 (7 � x 11 inches), and it is described as 'Dark green sea with gray & blue sky' and valued at $2500. 

Mrs Brimmer, the owner of the painting exhibited in 1904, died in 1905. Her husband, Martin Brimmer (1829-96), was one of the first trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and was its president from 1870 to 1895. Part of their collection was bequeathed to the Museum, and the rest of her estate was distributed among a number of indirect heirs. According to her executors, Welch & Forbes of Boston, who were trustees of her estate, a 'Small marine by Whistler' was listed among 'Articles borrowed by the Museum from other heirs' of Mrs Brimmer. The list is undated. However, it appears that this painting stayed in Massachusetts, and I think that it is �Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers� 

2.
Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers� cont.
Lit: Glasgow Herald, 9 Nov. 1893; St James's Gazette, 6 Dec. 1893, p. 12, 12 Dec. 1893, p. 4; Anon, �The Grafton Gallery Collection, Art Journal, March 1894, p. 89; Gustave Geffroy, �Whistler� in �Salon de 1894�, Vie Artistique, IV, 1895, pp. 140-1; Arthur J. Eddy, Recollections and Impressions of James McNeill Whistler, Philadelphia and London, 1903, pp. 274-5; A. E. Gallatin, Whistler�s Art Dicta and other essays, Boston, 1904, f.p. 1; A. McL. Young, M.F. MacDonald, R. Spencer and H. Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, London 1960, cat. nos. 413 and 517.

The Art Journal described the three sea-pieces exhibited at the Grafton Galleries in 1894 incorrectly as having been painted the previous autumn on the coast of Normandy, and praised No. 413, 'the colour... being a veritable tour de force'. Geffroy was probably correct in saying all three (which he saw in Paris) were painted in the summer on the coast of Brittany (see No. 411) and he described all three as paintings of ships in high seas, under a cloudy sky.

 Yours sincerely
Margaret F. MacDonald
Professor of Art History
Department of History of Art,
8 University Gardens
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8