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Boating at Argenteuil Pierre-Auguste Renoir Date: 1873

 Boating at Argenteuil

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Date: 1873

Style: Impressionism

Period: Association with Impressionists

Genre: genre painting

Media: oil, canvas

Location: Private Collection

Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen James McNeill Whistler Date: 1864

 Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen

James McNeill Whistler

Date: 1864

Style: Japonism, Realism

Genre: genre painting

Media: oil, wood

PROVENANCE

To 1904

Cyril Flower (1843-1907), London, to 1904 

From 1904 to 1919

Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Cyril Flower, through William Marchant and Co., London, in 1904 

From 1920

Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 

LABEL

In the mid-1860s Whistler undertook a series of works in which recognizably English models in exotic costumes are depicted as Japanese courtesans surrounded by objects from the artist’s personal collection of Asian art. Here, he presents the Irish model Joanna Hiffernan in the guise of a Japanese courtesan, contemplating a print from Utagawa Hiroshige’s Views of the Sixty-odd Provinces, an iconic series of meisho-e, or images of notable places. When Charles Lang Freer first saw this painting in 1902, he had acquired an impressive collection of Japanese prints and paintings as well as hundreds of works by Whistler. Freer declared that Caprice was “one of the most perfect things in composition and colouring in the whole range of Mr. Whistler’s art.”

PUBLISHED REFERENCES

Margaret F. MacDonald. The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler. Exh. cat. New Haven, CT. pgs. 22-23, fig. 6.

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Susan Hobbs. Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. vol. 120, no. 5 New York, November 1981. pl. 10.

Jacques Dufwa. Winds from the East: A Study in the Art of Manet, Degas, Monet and Whistler, 1856-86. Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey and Stockholm. fig. 139.

Hilary Taylor. James McNeill Whistler. New York. pl. 21.

L'oeuvre de James McNeill Whistler: quarante reproductions de chefs-d'oeuvre du maitre reunis a l'occasion de l'exposition commemorative organisee a Paris au palais de l'Ecole nationale des beaux arts. Exh. cat. Paris. pl. 10.

Freer Gallery of Art. Gallery Book IX: Exhibition of May 2nd, 1923. Washington. .

unknown title. London. opp. p. 88.

Judith Elaine Gorder. James McNeill Whistler: A Study of the Oil Paintings 1855-1869. Ann Arbor. fig. 25.

Klaus Berger. Japonismus in der Westlichen Malerei: 1860-1920. München. pl. 17.

Julius Meier-Graefe. Modern Art: Being a Contribution to a New System of Aesthetics. 2 vols., London and New York, 1908. vol. 2: p. 207.

Denys Sutton. James McNeill Whistler: Paintings, Etchings, Pastels & Watercolours. London, 1966. pls. 30-31.

Denys Sutton. Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler. Philadelphia and New York, 1964. pl. 2.

James McNeill Whistler. Nocturnes, Marines, & Chevalet Pieces: Small Collection Kindly Lent by Their Owners. London, 1892. pl. 13.

, (Introduction) Elizabeth Robins Pennell, (Introduction) Joseph Pennell. James McNeill Whistler. Distinguished American artists New York, 1924. pl. 15.

Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Joseph Pennell. The Life of James McNeill Whistler. 2 vols., London and Philadelphia. vol. 2: p. 124.

Henry Ryan MacGinnis. America en plein air: Impressions by Henry Ryan MacGinnis. Exh. cat. Carlisle. .

Melanie Trede, Lorenz Bichler. Hiroshige: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Hong Kong and Los Angeles. .

Mary Ellen Hayward. The Influence of the Classical Oriental Tradition. vol. 14, no. 2 Chicago, Summer 1979. fig. 5.

Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer. The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler. Studies in British Art 2 vols. New Haven, 1980. vol. 2: pl. 17.

Anna Gruetzner. A Fragile Modernism: Whistler and His Impressionist Followers. New Haven and London, 2007. fig. 19.

Burns A. Stubbs. James McNeill Whistler: A Biographical Outline Illustrated from the Collections of the Freer Gallery of Art. vol. 1, no. 4 Washington, 1950. pl. 5.

Kondo Ichitaro. Ukiyo-e and Impressionists. no. 89 Tokyo, August 1958. p. 3.

Eric Denker. Japanese Prints and Western Art. Washington, Summer 2005. p. 6.

David Park Curry. James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1984. pp. 7, 104, pl. 4.

Kristina Fridh. Japanska rum: om tomhet och foranderlighet i traditionell och nutida japansk arkitektur. Stockholm. p. 13.

Grace Dunham Guest. Whistler: The Artist and the Man. Smithsonian Institution Radio Program, vol. 10, no. 3 New York. p. 13.

Jill DeVonyar. Degas and the Art of Japan. Exh. cat. Reading and New Haven, 2007. p. 13, fig. 6.

Eleanor Jones Harvey. An Impressionist Sensibility: The Halff Collection. Exh. cat. Washington, 2006. p. 15.

Julia Meech. The Early Years of Japanese Print Collecting in North America. no. 25. p. 16, fig. 1.

John Clarence Webster. Whistler and the Art of the Orient. pp. 19-20.

H. Granville Fell. Memories of Whistler I. The Peacock Room. vol. 95 London, January/February 1935. pp. 21-24.

Frederick Arnold Sweet. James McNeill Whistler: Paintings, Pastels, Watercolors, Drawings, Etchings, Lithographs. Exh. cat. Chicago, 1968. p. 22.

Ann McClellan. The Cherry Blossom Festival. Boston. p. 22.

R. Sarah Richardson. Come Look With Me: The Artist at Work. Come Look WIth Me New York. p. 24.

Freer Gallery of Art. The Freer Gallery of Art. Washington. p. 26.

Clay Lancaster. The Japanese Influence in America. New York, 1963. p. 31, 37, fig. 20, pl. 2.

Thomas Robert Way, G. R. Dennis. The Art of James McNeill Whistler: An Appreciation by T.R. Way and G.R. Dennis. London, 1903. p. 32.

Margaret F. MacDonald, Patricia de Montfort, Pamela Robertson, Lee Glazer. James McNeill Whistler Retrospective. Exh. cat. Tokyo, 2014. p. 34, fig. 18.

Thomas Lawton, Linda Merrill. Freer: a legacy of art. Washington and New York, 1993. p. 35, fig. 22.

Obra Social la Caixa. Japonismo: La fascinacion por el arte japones. p. 38, fig. 1.

Laura Wortley. British Impressionism: A Garden of Bright Images. London. p. 42.

Nasser D. Khalili. "ЗА ГРАНЬЮ ВООБРАЖЕНИЯ. ПРОИЗВЕДЕНИЯ ЯПОНСКОГО ИСКУССТВА XIX НАЧАЛА XX ВЕКА ИЗ КОЛЛЕКЦИИ ПРОФЕССОРА ХАЛИЛИ." BEYOND IMAGINATION Treasures of Imperial Japan from the Khalili. Exh. cat. Moscow. p. 44.

Robin Spencer. Japonisme in Art: An International Symposium., 1st edition. Tokyo, 1980. pp. 47, 62.

David Park Curry. Slouching Towards Abstraction. vol. 3, no. 1 Washington, Winter 1989. pp. 53-54, fig. 7.

Michael Komanecky. The Folding Image: Screens by Western Artists of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Exh. cat. New Haven, 1984. p. 58, fig. 53.

Ayako Ono. Japonisme in Britain: Whistler, Menpes, Henry, Hornel, and Nineteenth-Century Japan. London and New York, 2003. p. 61, fig. 2.16.

, Gary Levine, Robert R. Praeto, Francine Tyler. La Femme: The Influence of Whistler and Japanese Print Masters on American Art, 1880-1917. Exh. cat. New York, October 26 - December 30, 1983. p. 66.

Ricard Bru. Erotic Japonisme: The Influence of Japanese Sexual Imagery on Western Art. Leiden. p. 72, fig. 60.

Arte Japones y Japonismo. Exh. cat. Bilbao. p. 73, fig. 41.

Ann C. Gunter. Greek Art and the Orient. New York. p. 78, fig. 20.

Kenneth Bendiner. An Introduction to Victorian Painting. New Haven. p. 83.

Adele Schlombs. Hiroshige. Hong Kong and Los Angeles. p. 86.

, Tanaka Ikkō, Sesoko Tsune. The Hybrid Culture: What Happened when East and West Met. Hiroshima. pp. 90, 92-93.

Tom Prideaux. The World of Whistler, 1834-1903. New York, 1970. p. 92.

Julia Meech. Early Collectors of Japanese Prints and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. vol. 17 New York. p. 94, fig. 3.

, Robin Asleson, Lee Glazer, Lacey Taylor Jordan, John Siewert, Marc Simpson, Sylvia Yount. After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting. Exh. cat. p. 102, fig. 86.

George du Maurier. The Young George du Maurier: A Selection of His Letters, 1860-1867., 2nd Edition. Westport, Connecticut, 1969. pp. 104, 105, 118, 226.

Maurice Raynal. The Nineteenth Century: New Sources of Emtion from Goya to Gauguin. Geneva and New York. p. 104.

David Park Curry. James McNeill Whistler: Uneasy Pieces. Richmond and New York, 2004. pp. 104, 176, pl. 4, fig. 5.11.

Petra Bosetti. Ein dandy schwarmt fur Exotik. vol. 8. pp. 108-109.

Linda Merrill. The Peacock Room: A Cultural Biography. Washington and New Haven. p. 1.12, fig. 1.12.

Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Joseph Pennell. The Whistler Journal. Philadelphia, 1921. p. 120.

Ira M. Horowitz. Whistler's Frames. vol. 39, no. 2, Winter 1979-1980. pp. 124-131, fig. 2.

Albert Ten Eyck. Gardner. Winslow Homer, American Artist: His World and His Work., 1st ed. New York, 1961. p. 135.

Sheldon Cheney. The Story of Modern Art., rev. ed. New York. p. 147.

Léonce Bénédite. Artistes Contemporains: Whistler. vol. 34, June 1905. p. 147.

Department of Culture & Tourism, Abu Dhabi. Japanese Connections: The Birth of Modern Décor. Exh. cat. Beirut, Lebanon. p. 148.

Imagenes Secretas: Picasso y la Estampa Erotica Japonesa [Secret Images: Picasso and the Japanese Erotic Print]. Exh. cat. Barcelona. p. 151, fig. 1.

The New Painting of the 1860s. New Haven and London. p. 163, fig. 146.

Ron Johnson. Whistler's Musical Modes: Symbolist Symphonies; Numinous Nocturnes. vol. 55, April 1981. pp. 163-176, fig. 4.

John Vollmer. Re-envisioning Japan: Meiji Fine Art Textiles. Milan, Italy. pp.164-165.

David Park Curry. Charles Lang Freer and American Art. vol. 118, no. 258, special issue., August 1983. pp. 168-179, pl. 8.

Anna Jackson. Tradition and Transmission of Textile Techniques: Present condition of research and conservation. p. 193, fig. 7.

H. Barbara Weinberg. Childe Hassam: American Impressionist. Exh. cat. New York and New Haven, 2004. p. 212, fig. 222.

Alastair Grieve. Whistler and the Pre-Raphaelites. vol. 34 London, Summer 1971. pp. 220, 227.

Charles Colbert. Haunted Visions: Spiritualism and American Art. Philadelphia. p. 220, fig. 62.

Nobuyuki Senzoku. The Collected Art Criticisms of Professor Nobuyuki Senzoku. Japan. p.234, fig.3.8.

Sadakichi Hartmann. The Whistler Book: A Monograph of the Life and Position in Art of James McNeill Whister, Together with a Careful Study of His More Important Works. Boston. p. 262, pl. 51.

Barbara Novak, Elizabeth Garrity Ellis. Nineteenth Century American Painting: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. London. p. 281.

Edwards Park. Treasures from the Smithsonian Institution., 1st ed. Washington and New York. pp. 325-27.

Leila Mechlin. The Freer Collection of Art: Mr. Charles L. Freer's Gift to the Nation, to be Installed at Washington. vol. 73, no. 3 New York, January 1907. p. 325.

Special Whistler Edition. vol. 12, no. 5 Chicago. p. 325.

Mahonri Sharp Young. The Master of the Nocturne., December 1963. p. 520.

COLLECTION AREA(S)

American Art

WEB RESOURCES

Google Cultural Institute

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Greenwood Plantation

 Greenwood Plantation was built in 1830 by William Ruffin Barrow in the Greek Revival style of architecture with 28 columns surrounding the mansion. It is considered the South’s finest example of classic colonial. The original house burned down in 1960 leaving behind just the columns and front steps. It was rebuilt and now stands substantially as it did over a century ago amidst multiple alleys of mature, majestic, moss draped oaks. Furnishings include beautiful 1830 original Barrow family pieces. Also displayed are pieces from the many movies filmed on location. Greenwood is a favorite of Hollywood which has been featured in movies including “Louisiana,” “North & South,” “GI Joe II,” and “Jeepers Creepers III.”

Tranquility is?

 

The Sandcastle, Pevensey Bay, East Sussex

 The Sandcastle is an incredibly rare example of a substantial Modern house directly on the sea front. It was designed in the early 1930s by the architect C. Evelyn Simmons for the actor Nicholas Prinsep and his American wife Anita Elson, one the most celebrated dancers of her day. The house has over 6,000 sq ft of internal space, which includes five bedrooms and three reception rooms and sits on approximately an acre of land. In recent years it has undergone extensive and sympathetic refurbishment. Situated directly on the East Sussex coast, residents have direct, private access to the beach (part of which is owned by the property).

The house has been designed to make the most of the sea views, with most of the rooms facing the beach. The main reception room features a wonderful, Art Deco curved window overlooking the gardens and the sea beyond. It also features, amongst other original details, an elegant fireplace. The second reception room, to the rear of the house, is a generously sized, square space with skylights that the current owners use as a library or family room. The kitchen has many restored 1930s details including the inbuilt storage and leads to a utility room on one side and the dining room to the front.

Also on the ground floor is a long bedroom wing featuring four bedrooms, all with en suite bathrooms. The largest of the bedrooms, the master suite, also benefits from a dressing room. An office, laundry room, ironing room and family bathroom can also be found on the ground floor. There is a boiler room and wine cellar on the lower ground floor.

The first floor features two rooms only, a fifth bedroom (with en suite shower room) and a wonderful space originally designed as a solarium that has views up and down the bay. It could potentially be used as another reception space, a bedroom or a studio. Extensive balconies on either side of this room provide ample outdoor space at this raised level.

The gardens are among the most appealing features of this astonishing house. The current owners have had them sympathetically landscaped to include formal lawns, borders and a wonderful heated swimming pool. To the rear of the house, there are more gardens as well as a garage block.

Pevensey Bay is a small coastal settlement, part of the village of Pevensey, on the beautiful East Sussex coast between Brighton and Hastings. It has a wide shingle beach and a high street with a number of shops and services. There is also a train station that runs direct services to London in approximately 1 hr 45 mins. Faster services run to London Victoria from nearby Eastbourne in approximately 80 minutes.

There are a number of good places to eat in the area, including The Lamb Inn at Wartling and the wonderful De La Warr Pavilion in nearby Bexhill which also offers a broad range of cultural events.

The Sandcastle was designed and built in 1934 for the actor Nicholas Princep and his American entertainer wife Anita Elson, (many thanks to Homes & Property for the image of them above), with a definite aura of 'sauciness' provided by its private beach, outdoor swimming pool, cocktail bar, and secret passageways between bedrooms... You may take it from this that Nick and Anita liked to have fun, with celebrity parties infamously held here during the 1930s! It was even rumoured that Edward VIII, whilst still Prince of Wales, holidayed here with his American lover, Wallis Simpson, later to become his wife, and reason for his relinquishing the Crown in December 1936.

The Sandcastle, pictured, a stunning Art Deco home where stars of the stage and screen once flocked for raunchy weekends away on the East Sussex

The Sandcastle, The Beachings, Pevensey Bay, East Sussex BN24 6JQ, was designed by Hampstead born, and London based, architect Charles Evelyn Simmons (1879-1952), and is an excellent example of Art Deco meets the modern design-wise. Simmons commenced practice from 1905, having previously been articled to Horace Field, gaining LRIBA status in January 1912; during World War I he served at the Ministry of Health Architects Department. Most of his work was then in London, but he designed properties as far away as Scotland, eg churches in Gretna and East Riggs in Dumfriesshire (Scottish Architects website). What I'm more interested in is The Sandcastle 

Beautifully restored Art Deco homes rarely come to market, making the opportunity to buy this modern coastal retreat, complete with a Great Gatsby-style swimming pool, all the more alluring. 

During World War II the property was requisitioned and used as a battery station for Canadian troops defending the coast, and afterwards it returned to use as a private residence until the 1970s, when it became a hotel. The building later fell into disrepair and, as I said above, was recently sensitively restored to its former glory, however, without the secret passageways or cocktail bar, and with some small alteration to the layout, and the outdoor pool is slightly smaller now too. 

The striking property was requisitioned in 1939 for use as a battery station in the Second World War, before returning to a private residence.

Inside, there is an impressive 6,000 sqft. of living space, including five bedrooms, three reception rooms and an upstairs solarium with lovely views across the bay.

this is where the cocktail bar - a must-have for homes in the 1930s - was previously situated

The 'winter living room', pictured, is one of several reception rooms available to the owners of The Sandcastle

View of the sea from the Winter Living room

The Library on ground floor

A view down the length of one mirrored hallway gives an idea of the size and scale of the coastal property, pictured

It had hidden doors in the back of wardrobes which led to secret passageways between bedrooms.

The first floor Bedroom 

The Upstairs Solarium

The Dining Room

The Kitchen

Bathrooms