About this artwork
In this intimately scaled seascape, James McNeill Whistler employed the sparest of compositional elements to evoke a coastal atmosphere. Broad horizontal bands of blues and gray suggest sky, ocean, and sand, with dabs of thin pigment giving economical, yet expressive form to around a dozen figures on the windswept beach. Whistler dedicated much of his artistic practice to capturing the mood and color harmonies of marine scenes. Coast Scene, Bathers was painted en plein air, a practice to which the artist returned in the 1880s. It marked a distinctive shift from his studio-produced Nocturnes of the previous decade.
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Status
- On View, Gallery 176
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Department
- Arts of the Americas
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Artist
- James McNeill Whistler
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Title
- Coast Scene, Bathers
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Place
- United States (Artist's nationality:)
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Date
- c. 1884–1885
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Medium
- Oil on panel
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Inscriptions
- Butterfly monogram, lower right
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Dimensions
- 13.3 × 21.9 cm (5 1/4 × 8 5/8 in.)
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Credit Line
- Walter S. Brewster Collection
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Reference Number
- 1933.208
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IIIF Manifest
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/14309/manifest.json
Extended information about this artwork
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