Art Institute of Chicago
Coast Scene, Bathers
James McNeill Whistler (American, 1834–1903)
- Date
- 1884–85
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Culture
- United States
- Department
- Arts of the Americas
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
In this intimately scaled seascape, James McNeill Whistler employed the sparest of compositional elements to evoke a coastal atmosphere. Broad horizontal bands of blues and gray suggest sky, ocean, and sand, with dabs of thin pigment giving economical, yet expressive form to around a dozen figures on the windswept beach. Whistler dedicated much of his artistic practice to capturing the mood and color harmonies of marine scenes. Coast Scene, Bathers was painted en plein air, a practice to which the artist returned in the 1880s. It marked a distinctive shift from his studio-produced Nocturnes of the previous decade.
The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Linked open data
Authority identifiers that link this record into the wider web of cultural data — stable references you can follow to the source.
- Object type
- AAT300033618
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Art Institute of Chicago and other institutions.
Nocturne: Blue and Gold—Southampton Water
Art Institute of Chicago
Grey and Silver: Old Battersea Reach
Art Institute of Chicago
The Seashore
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Violet and Silver—The Deep Sea
Art Institute of Chicago
Trouville (Grey and Green, the Silver Sea)
Art Institute of Chicago
Old Battersea Bridge
Art Institute of Chicago
Nocturne: Palaces
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Nocturne, from Venice, a Series of Twelve Etchings (the "First Venice Set")
Art Institute of Chicago
Green and Blue: The Dancer
Art Institute of Chicago
Nocturne: Palaces
Minneapolis Institute of Art
The Balcony
Cleveland Museum of Art
Coast of Maine
Art Institute of Chicago