Violet and Silver—The Deep Sea
James McNeill Whistler (American, 1834–1903)
1893
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 50.2 × 73.3 cm (19 3/4 × 28 7/8 in.)
- Culture
- Brittany
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Gift of Clara Margaret Lynch in memory of John A. Lynch
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
After years of painting seascapes on a significantly smaller scale, James McNeill Whistler returned briefly to a large-format canvas to capture a hot summer day on the water near Brittany, France. The artist likely painted this seascape while boating off the coast as a crewman steadied their vessel. This could account for the unusually broad handling of paint and thick touches of pigment apparent throughout the composition, particularly in the clouds and gently cresting waves. Here, Whistler demonstrated his enduring passion for the myriad relationships of color offered by the ever-changing sea.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
