Crepuscule in Opal, Trouville

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Crepuscule in Opal, Trouville

Artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler (American, 1834-1903)

Date1865

DimensionsPainting: 13 3/4 × 18 1/8 in. (34.9 × 46 cm)
Frame: 23 3/8 × 27 3/8 × 3 in. (59.4 × 69.5 × 7.6 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of Florence Scott Libbey

Object number

1923.20

On View

Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion (2444 Monroe Street), Glass Study Room GP

Label TextArt should be independent of all claptrap—should stand alone, and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism, and the like. James Abbott McNeill Whistler Though born in Massachusetts, Whistler spent most of his career in Europe, first in Paris, then settling in London in 1859. Whistler painted this almost abstract view of the beach while on a trip to Trouville, France, with fellow painter Gustave Courbet (see paintings by Courbet in Gallery 33). The title relates both to the time of day depicted (twilight) and to the overall color harmony of the painting. Whistler, who advocated that art should stand on its own merits (“art for art’s sake”), often titled his paintings as if they were musical compositions to emphasize an analogy to musical harmonies.Published ReferencesSickert, B., Whistler, London and New York, 1908, p. 165, no. 107.

Carey, E., The Works of James McNeill Whistler, A Study, New York, 1913, p. 226, no. 474.

Graves, A., A Century of Loan Exhibitions, London, 1914, IV, p. 1660, no. 107.

Godwin, Blake-More, "A Whistler Nocturne," The Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 44, Oct. 1923, pp. 7-8, repr. p. 7.

Sutton, D., Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler, Philadelphia and New York, 1964, pp. 51, 140.

Novak, B., American Painting of the Nineteenth Century, New York, 1969, p. 251, figs. 14-17.

McMullen, R., Victorian Outsider: A Biography of J.A.M. Whistler, 1973, pp. 132-274.

Weintraub, S., Whistler, A Biography, New York, 1974, p. 130.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, pp. 112-113, pl. 47.

Young, Andrew McLaren, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven, 1980, no. 67, p. 39, repr. (col.) pl. 55.

Cabanne, Pierre, Whistler, New York, 1985, repr. (col.), p. 18.

Faunce, Sarah and Linda Nochlin, Courbet Reconsidered, Brooklyn, 1988, p. 158. [not in exhib.]

Enaud-Lechien, Isabelle, Whistler et la France, Paris, 1994, p. 26, repr. 27 (col.).

Whistler, Paris, 1995, repr. p. 45 (col.).

Constantino, Maria, Whistler, London, 1997, repr. p. 54 (col.).

Spalding, Frances, Whistler, London, 1994, p. 64, pl. 17 (col.).

Siewert, John, "Whistler's Landscape and the Challenge of the Open Air," The Whistler Review, vol. 1, 1999, p. 16, pl. 1 (col.) opp. p. 24.

Dumas, Ann et al., Edgar Degas: The Last Landscapes, London, Merrell, 2006, pp. 15-16, fig. 9 (col.).

Karpeles, Eric, Painting in Proust: A Visual Companion to 'In Search of Lost Time', London, Thames & Hudson, 2008, p. 335 n. 121, repr. p. 121 (col.).

Cash, Sarah, ed., Sargent and the Sea, New Haven, Yale University, 2009, p. 54, fig. 60 (col.), p. 55 [not in exhib.]

Herding, Klaus and Max Hollein, eds., Courbet: a Dream of Modern Art, Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2010, repr. (col.) p. 218 (not in exhibition).

"Les écrivains au pays des impressionnistes," Le nouvel Observateur, no. 3, July/August 2013, p.100, repr. (col.) p. 101.

MacDonald, Margaret F., The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2020, p. 25, repr. (col.) pl. 43, p. 112.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, Goupil Gallery, Loan Exhibition of Nocturnes, Marines, and Chevalet Pieces by Whistler, 1892, no. 39.

London, New Gallery, International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, Memorial Exhibition of the Works of James A. Whistler, 1905, no. 140.

New York, Macbeth, Whistler, 1947, no. 22.

London, Arts Council Gallery, and New York, Knoedler, James McNeill Whistler, 1960, no. 14, repr. pl. 5 (cat. by A. Young).

Berlin, Nationalgalerie, James McNeill Whistler, 1969, no. 6, (cat. by A. Young and R. Spencer).

Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Whistler: The Later Years, 1978, no. 40.

Akron, Akron Art Institute, Forty American Painters, 1945, no. 12.

Utica, Munson-Williams-Proctor, Expatriates: Whistler, Cassatt, Sargent, 1953, no. 12.

Montclair, Montclair Art Museum, Master Painters, 1957, no. 48.

London, England, Arts Council of Great Britain Gallery, 1960.

Saginaw Museum, Delta College, University Center, Picture of the Month, March 1962.

London, Tate Gallery; Paris, Musee d'Orsay; Washington, D. C., National Gallery of Art; James McNeill Whistler, 1994-1995, no. 40, pp. 112, 113, repr. (col.).