Trouville (Grey and Green, the Silver Sea)

1865

James McNeill Whistler (American, 1834–1903)

In the early 1860s, James McNeill Whistler began to develop an art-for-art’s-sake aesthetic, eschewing narrative or naturalistic details to focus more intently on formal concerns. In 1865 the artist traveled to Trouville, a French resort town, where he painted with Gustave Courbet and experimented with a series of increasingly simplified seascapes. The high horizon line and broad expanses of muted color in this spare composition reveal Whistler’s interest in Japanese woodblock prints. The sweeping, horizontal brushstrokes and restrained palette, limited to pale greens and soft grays, reinforce the painting’s innovative, flattened perspective.

Status: On View, Gallery 246
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Title: Trouville (Grey and Green, the Silver Sea)
Place: Trouville (Place depicted:)
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.: 1865
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed recto, lower right: "Whistler"
Dimensions: 51.5 × 77.2 cm (20 1/4 × 30 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Honoré and Potter Palmer
Reference Number: 1922.448
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/81572/manifest.json

Society of French Artists, Seventh Exhibition of the Society of French Artists, exh. cat. (London: Society of French Artists, 1873), cat. 110, as The Yacht Race–A Symphony in B Sharp.
Copley Society, Oil paintings, Water Colors, Pastels, and Drawings : Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr J. McNeill Whistler, exh. cat. (Boston: Copley Society, 1904), cat. 12, as Marine–Gray and Green.
École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Exposition des Oeuvres de James McNeill Whistler, exh. cat. (Paris: Palais de l’École des Beaux-Arts Quai Malaquais, 1905), cat. 63, as Gris et vert, Marine.
Elisabeth Luther Cary, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study with a Tentative List of the Artist’s Works (New York: Moffat, Yard & Company, 1907), 157, cat. 12.
Bernhard Sickert, Whistler (London: Duckworth & Co.; New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1908), 153, cat. 20.
Elizabeth R. and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols. (London: William Heinemann; Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1908), 133–34.
Forty–Fourth Annual Report of the Trustees, for the Year 1922 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1923), 11.
Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, Paintings, and Drawings: Part 2: Paintings and Drawings, vol. 2 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1922), 69, cat. 850.
“Accessions and Loans,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 16, no. 3 (May 1922), 47.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1925), 157.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1932), 176.
Osbert Sitwell, ed., A Free House! Or, the Artist as Craftsman: Being the Writings of Walter Richard Sickert (London, MacMillan, 1947).
Jerrold A. Morris and Doris Shadbolt, Two Hundred Years of American Painting, exh. cat. (Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1955), cat. 22, as Gray and Green: The Silver Sea.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), 483.
Denys Sutton, Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1963), 51–52.
John Shapley, ed., The Index of Twentieth Century Artists, 4 vols. (New York: College Art Association, 1934; repr., New York: Arno Press, 1970), 182–220.
Frederick A. Sweet, James McNeill Whistler, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 1968), 50, 63–64, cat. 12 (ill.), as Grey and Green: The Silver Sea.
Allen Staley and Theodore Reff, From Realism to Symbolism : Whistler and His World, exh. cat. (New York: Columbia University, 1971), cat. 19.
Roy McMullen, Victorian Outsider: A Biography of J.A.M. Whistler (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1973), 13–133.
Jean Devoisins and Jean-Alain Méric, Trésors Impressionnistes du Musée de Chicago, exh. cat. (Albi, France: Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, 1980), 66, cat. 58 (ill.), as Gris et vert: la mer d’argent.
Gary Tinterow and Henri Loyrett, Origins of Impressionism, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994), 237, cat. 192, fig. 290 (ill.).
Juliet Wilson-Bareau with David C. Degener, Manet and the American Civil War, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003), 74, 76, 83, no cat. no., fig. 57 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, et al., The Age of American Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2011), 38, cat. 12 (ill.).
Jay A. Clarke and Sarah Kelly Oehler, eds., Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. 9 (ill.), http://artic.edu/digitalwhistler.
Margaret F. MacDonald, et al., The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler, exh. cat. (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art; London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2020), 25, 115, 206, pl. 46 (ill.).
Margaret F. MacDonald and Grischka Petri, “Trouville,” The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler: A Catalogue Raisonné, University of Glasgow, accessed June 3, 2020, https://whistlerpaintings.gla.ac.uk/catalogue/display/?mid=y070, as Trouville (ill.).

London, Society of French Artists, Seventh Exhibition, Nov. 3– ?, 1873, cat. 110, as The Yacht Race–A Symphony in B Sharp.
Boston, The Copley Society, Copley Hall, Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler: Oil Paintings, Watercolors, Pastels, and Drawings, Feb. 1904, cat. 12, as Marine–Gray and Green.
Paris, Palais de l’Ecole des Beaux–Arts, Exposition des Oeuvres de James McNeill Whistler, May 1905, cat. 63, as Gris et vert, Marine.
Minneapolis, University of Minnesota, Northbrook Memorial Hall, Feb. 1939.
Vancouver Art Gallery, Two Hundred Years of American Painting, Mar. 8–Apr. 3, 1955, cat. 22, as Gray and Green: The Silver Sea.
Art Institute of Chicago, Two Centuries of American Art, 1750-1950, Oct. 1, 1959–Jan. 10, 1960, no cat. [downloadable checklist available].
Art Institute of Chicago, James McNeill Whistler, Jan. 13, 1968–Feb. 25, 1968, cat. 12; Utica, NY, Munson–Williams–Proctor Institute, Mar. 17, 1968–Apr. 28, 1968, as Grey and Green: The Silver Sea.
New York, Wildenstein and Company, From Realism to Symbolism: Whistler and His World, Mar. 4–Apr. 3, 1971; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Apr. 15–May 23, 1971, cat. 19 (co-organized by Department of Art History and Archeology, Columbia University).
Art Institute of Chicago, Whistler: Prints and Paintings, May–Aug. 31, 1979, no cat.
Albi, France, Musée Toulouse–Lautrec, Trésors Impressionnistes du Musée de Chicago, June 27–Aug. 31, 1980, cat. 58, as Gris et vert: la mer d’argent.
Paris, Galeries Nationals du Grand Palais, Origins of Impressionism, Apr. 19–Aug. 8, 1994; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sept. 27, 1994–Jan. 8, 1995, cat. 192.
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manet and the American Civil War, June 3–Aug. 17, 2003, no cat. no.
Art Institute of Chicago, Manet and the Sea, Oct. 20, 2003–Jan. 4, 2004, cat.; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Feb. 8, 2004–May 9, 2004; Amsterdam, Van Gough Museum, June 18–Sept. 26, 2004.

Mrs. Charles W. Deschamps (Christina Deschamps, born Dodds, 1845–1926), London, by November 1873 [lent to London 1873]; sold back to the artist, April 1891 [letter from Charles W. Deshamps to James McNeill Whistler, dated April 8, 1891, GUW 00803]; consigned to Boussod, Valadon & Cie/Goupil Gallery, Paris, by July 1892 [letter from David Croal Thomson to James McNeill Whistler, dated July 12, 1892, GUW 05753; letter from Whistler to Thomson, July 1892, GUW 08332; and letter from Thomson to Whistler, dated July 23, 1892, GUW 05754]; sold to Théodore Duret (1838–1927), Paris, 1892; consigned to Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, by July 1901; sold to Mrs. Potter Palmer (Bertha Palmer, born Honoré, 1849–1918), Chicago, July 1901 [according to Young, MacDonald, Spencer, and Miles 1980; lent to Boston 1904 and Paris 1905]; by descent to her sons, Honoré Palmer (1874–1964) and Potter Palmer II (1875–1943), 1918; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.

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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.

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