James McNeill Whistler Green and Silver: The Great Sea

Date September 1899
Materials Oil on wood
Dimensions 17.1 cm x 24.8 cm
Marks Signed with a butterfly at the bottom right
Further information GLAHA 46351.
Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1980 (518, plate 331).

Note This seascape was painted in Normandy in France, when Whistler was recovering from an illness. Despite this, the painting is alive with energy and colour. The sea is depicted with tumbles and twists of green paint, to suggest the roll and swell of the waves. Lively streaks of white indicate the breaking waves. Dark lines of paint towards the horizon suggest deeper water. The sky is similarly complex, and is made up of many layers. Notice the pale blue underneath. Over this Whistler painted the clouds firstly with a dark grey paint, and then with curls of thicker white and paler grey. Look how he suggests an ominous rain storm on the horizon, using downward streaks of thinner grey paint through which the blue can still be seen.