1. Glazer, Jacobson, McCarthy, Roeder, wall label, 2019:
Whistler's domestic interiors often convey a sense of intimacy or capture a private moment. An early work in this vein is Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room; (1860–61), an oil painting of his half-sister (playing a hidden piano), his niece, and a family friend. Twenty years later he returned to the theme in his watercolors.
He frequently depicted his model and longtime companion Maud Franklin, recognizable by her auburn hair, in quiet moments at home. Several compositions contain suggestions of an unseen person–perhaps the artist himself–by including a hat on the bed or an empty chair.
1. Curry: James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, Pg. 199
Whistler's exploration of standard compositions over the decades was not confined to landscapes and studio nudes. Pink Note: Shelling Peas harks back to his earliest genre scenes, such as the seated figure with a work bowl, framed by a doorway, called La Vieille aux Loques, 1858 [etching, F1890.1]. The volumetric treatment of the woman in Pink Note, unusual for Whistler in the 1880s, recalls his sculptural figure drawings of the late 1860s. The bright color scheme, on the other hand, reflects a general move away from dark Dutch-inspired tonalities toward the lighter palette associated with Impressionism. Images of peasants had been executed by Millet and others since the 1850s. Ubiquitous in popular literature, the peasant remained a favorite, if increasingly romanticized, subject for the rest of the century. Elaborate peasant pictures hardly dominate Whistler's oeuvre, but he continued to sketch such figures as late as the 1890s [Peasants, pencil, Whistler Sketchbook, Hunterian], thereby acknowledging one of the standard themes of his era.
2. Mr. Whistler's Exhibition," Standard, May 19, 1884
"Then there is the charming little water colour, No. 20, which Mr. Whistler, addressing the initiated, calls 'Pink note,' but which, remembering the outsider with a measure of tenderness, he styles also 'Shelling Peas' – what a pretty little vision of the coolest of sunny light."
3. "Mr. Whistler's Exhibition," Graphic, May 24, 1884
"Mr. Whistler['s] ... recent studies and sketches ... are varied in subject, and differ from each other very widely in merit. The majority are of the slightest kind, mere memoranda of effects of light and colour, such as other artists retain in their studios for reference. A few of these, vague as they are, and without any definition of form, are charming by reason of their subtle beauty of colour and suggestiveness. 'The Nouvelette,' in which the figure of a lady reading in bed is faintly indicated, the figure of a girl seen through a doorway 'Shelling Peas' [no. 20], and the interior called 'Violet and Red' [no. 6 or no. 10], are among the best of these very slight watercolour sketches."
4. "Messrs. Dowdeswell's Gallery," Morning Post, May 24, 1884
"We turn with [a] pleasant sense of relief to performances which show their artist at his best, and prove what fin e work he is capable when he condescends to do himself justice. In this honorable category may be mentioned, for example, ... 'Shelling Peas,' a pretty drawing, especially to be commended for the daylight outlook and the tenderly painted figure of the girl who is shelling."
5. Kensington News, May 24, 1884
"Perhaps (20) 'Pink Note – Shelling Peas' is the best work of all, the effect of sunlight is so good."
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