Blue and Grey—Unloading

Maker(s)
Artist: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Historical period(s)
ca. 1883-1884
Medium
Oil on wood panel
Dimensions
H x W (image): 8.9 x 14.9 cm (3 1/2 x 5 7/8 in)
Geography
United States
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1902.150a-b
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Painting
Type

Oil painting

Keywords
beach, boat, cloud, ocean, United States, work
Provenance

To 1902
Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934), London, to 1902 [1]

From 1902 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Henry Studdy Theobald, London, in August 1902 [2]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] Undated folder note sheet, Object file. See also Original Whistler List, Purchases from Theobald, pg. 2, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[2] See note 1.

[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Henry Studdy Theobald (C.L. Freer source) 1847-1934
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919

Label

Only 3 1/2 x 5 7/8 inches in size, Blue and Grey: Unloading is one of several exceptionally small panels that Whistler completed in St. Ives in December 1883 or January 1884. The early Whistler collector H. H. Benedict must have been thinking of paintings like this when he commented about Whistler's "smaller things" that they were "superficially, the size of your hand, but, artistically, as a large as a continent."

Benedict's remark is quoted in Charles Lang Freer to H. H. Benedict, November 28, 1901, Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

Published References
  • Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer. The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler. Studies in British Art 2 vols. New Haven, 1980. vol. 2: pl. 210.
  • Kenneth Myers. Mr. Whistler's Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition. Washington. cat. 14, p. 40.
  • David Park Curry. James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1984. p. 138, pl. 42.
Collection Area(s)
American Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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