Symphony in Grey: Early Morning, Thames

Maker(s)
Artist: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Historical period(s)
1871
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
H x W (frame): 100 × 79.7 cm (39 3/8 × 31 3/8 in)
Geography
United States
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1904.50a-b
On View Location
Freer Gallery 11: A Perfect Harmony
Classification(s)
Painting
Type

Oil painting

Keywords
beach, landscape, river, United States
Provenance

To 1904
William Marchant & Co., London, to 1904 [1]

From 1904 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from William Marchant & Co. in 1904 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See Original Whistler List, Paintings, pg. 12, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Purchased in April 1904.

[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)

Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
William Marchant & Co. (C.L. Freer source) flourished 1907-1925

Label

Whistler exhibited this painting both as a “Harmony” and as a “Symphony” rather than as a Nocturne, but this view of Battersea at dawn shares the same features as many of the artist’s moonlit scenes of the Thames. Thinly painted, it conveys a sense of space and movement through the sweeping brushstrokes that move across the canvas from left to right. Whistler’s butterfly signature appears on a cartouche in the manner of Japanese printmakers.

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. 45.
  • Grace Dunham Guest. Whistler: The Artist and the Man. Smithsonian Institution Radio Program, vol. 10, no. 3 New York. p. 13.
  • David Park Curry. James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1984. pp. 20, 120, pl. 23.
  • Charles Henry Caffin. The Art of James McNeill Whistler: Lecture at the Detroit Museum of Art. Detroit, Friday, April 23, 1909. p. 43.
  • Linda Merrill. A Pot of Paint: Aesthetics on Trial in Whistler v. Ruskin. Washington and London. p. 51, fig. 24.
  • American Art: Smithsonian American Art Museum. vol. 27, no. 1, 2013. p. 54, fig. 4.
  • Linda Merrill. An Ideal Country: Paintings by Dwight William Tryon in the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington and Hanover and London, 1990. p. 110, fig. 81.
  • David Park Curry. Charles Lang Freer and American Art. vol. 118, no. 258, special issue., August 1983. pp. 168-179, fig. 7.
Collection Area(s)
American Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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