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Coast Scene, Bathers

A work made of oil on panel.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of oil on panel.

Date:

1884–85

Artist:

James McNeill Whistler (American, 1834–1903)

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.

Status

On View, Gallery 176

Department

Arts of the Americas

Artist

James McNeill Whistler

Title

Coast Scene, Bathers

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

c. 1884–1885

Medium

Oil on panel

Inscriptions

Butterfly monogram, lower right

Dimensions

13.3 × 21.9 cm (5 1/4 × 8 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Walter S. Brewster Collection

Reference Number

1933.208

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/14309/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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