Note in Blue and Opal–Jersey
date: label: Date
content: 1881
name: label: Artist
content: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
notes: label: Description
content: In the foreground, a flat beach at low tide; in the distance, points of land running into the water; signed with the butterfly at the lower left.
label: Signatures
content: Blue butterfly in lower left quadrant
label: Paper/Support
content: On cold-pressed, wove paper mounted overall to board. The paper support is mounted on top of a manufactured board that already had a facing paper. Graphite sight lines around all four edges.
label: Provenance
content: To 1904
label: Provenance
content: Thomas Way Sr. (1827-1915), London, or Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), London, to 1904 [1]
label: Provenance
content: From 1904 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Thomas Way Sr. or Thomas Robert Way in 1904 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Original Whistler List, Paintings, pg. 20, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Thomas Way Sr. and his son, Thomas Robert Way, were lithographers who worked closely with Whistler on several of his projects. They helped with the printing of his etchings, as well as the printing of Whistler’s promotional materials. Both Thomas Way Sr. and Thomas Robert Way owned many Whistler works. Thomas Way Sr. acquired several of these works at the time of Whistler’s bankruptcy, and he passed some of them on to his son (see The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler, 1855-1903, ed. Margaret F. MacDonald, Patricia de Montfort and Nigel Thorp, On-line Edition, People, biographies of Thomas Way and Thomas Robert Way; http://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/correspondence).
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer acquired many Whistler pieces from the Ways. However, museum records do not always specify whether it was the younger or elder Way who was the source of a particular object. Further, archival sources indicate that the junior Way sometimes acted on behalf of his father: whilst negotiating the sale of his own Whistler works to C.L. Freer, he would concurrently negotiate the sale of some of his father’s Whistler works to Freer. In cases where it is unclear whether it was the junior or senior Way who actually owned a piece acquired by C.L. Freer, the provenance record will simply state that the object was purchased from “Thomas Way Sr. or Thomas Robert Way.”
label: Provenance
content: [2] See note 1.
label: Provenance
content: [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.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: Whistler in Watercolor (May 18 to November 3, 2019)
label: Exhibition History
content: Whistler—Landscapes and Seascapes (October 14, 1969 to September 25, 1971)
label: Exhibition History
content: Centennial Exhibition, Galleries 10 and 11 (February 25, 1956 to November 3, 1959)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Whistler Paintings and Drawings (December 14, 1955 to February 25, 1956)
label: Exhibition History
content: Untitled Exhibition, Works of Whistler (September 22, 1947 to April 11, 1955)
label: Exhibition History
content: Whistler Water Colors (January 7, 1924 to April 4, 1930)
label: Exhibition History
content: A Selection of Art Objects from the Freer Collection Exhibited in the New Building of the National Museum (April 15 to June 15, 1912)
label: Exhibition History
content: Exposition des Oeuvres de James McNeill Whistler (May 1905)
label: Exhibition History
content: Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture (1887)
label: Exhibition History
content: Sixth Summer Exhibition (1882)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Thomas Way Sr. (1837-1915)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: United States
topic: label: Topic
content: crop marks
label: Topic
content: mounting
label: Topic
content: bone black
label: Topic
content: cerulean blue
label: Topic
content: Prussian blue
label: Topic
content: raw sienna
label: Topic
content: raw umber
label: Topic
content: zinc white
label: Topic
content: Mars pigment
label: Topic
content: yellow ocher
label: Topic
content: indigo
label: Topic
content: landscape
label: Topic
content: water
label: Topic
content: cloud
label: Topic
content: United States
label: Topic
content: American Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: Related Online Resources
content: Whistler in Watercolor
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1904.83a-b
objectType: label: Type
content: Painting
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Watercolor on paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 13.8 x 25.5 cm (5 7/16 x 10 1/16 in)