James McNeill Whistler The Greengrocer’s Shop, Paris

Date c.1887-1890
Materials Oil on wood
Dimensions 14.0 cm x 23.4 cm
Marks Signed with a butterfly on the verso.
Further information GLAHA 46353.
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 (372, plate 237).

Note This unfinished panel demonstrates Whistler's painting technique. The basic composition was firstly sketched in black on a grey primed wooden panel, and then the central areas were coloured with thinned-down oil paints. You can see that Whistler gave individuality to his figures from a very early stage, even before they were painted in detail. Notice that the woman on the far right has only been drawn in outline, but her posture, the tilt of her head and her hands on her hips tell the viewer a lot about her character. This picture was probably begun out of doors, in front of the object. It was painted on a wood panel of a size that would easily fit into Whistler’s painting box, so that he could carry it around.