James McNeill Whistler

Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony

© Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Date1865
Materials Oil on wood
Dimensions 61.4 cm x 48.8 cm
Marks Originally signed and dated: “Whistler. 1865.“ Later signed with a butterfly at the lower left.
Further information Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. www.asia.si.edu/
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 (56, plate 52).

Note This is an unusual painting because it shows women dressed exotically in kimonos, with fans and a Japanese shamisen, not in a Japanese setting, but on the banks of the industrial Thames with its factories and chimneys. The composition of the painting itself with its strong horizontal and vertical lines, formed by the rolled bamboo blinds and railings, appears to have been inspired by settings in Japanese prints. Whistler made his boxed butterfly signature in the bottom left corner and the branch of cherry blossom enhance the oriental feel. The branch though is merely decorative and is not used to give an impression of depth as in Japanese art. The title of this work is important and draws attention to the subtle colour harmonies of the painting, with its pale pink and olive green, picked up in the kimonos, flowers and signature.