Opal Beach

1. Curry: James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, Pg. 180
In 1884, Opal Beach was included in Nocturnes–Harmonies–Chevalet Pieces, Whistler's first major exhibition of watercolors [This is an error: Curry is almost certainly referring to the 1884 Dowdeswell exhibit, "Notes"–"Harmonies"–"Nocturnes," though he could be referring to the 1892 Goupil Gallery exhibit titled Nocturnes–Harmonies–Chevalet Pieces]. The facility with which the artist painted Opal Beach suggests that he had been working with watercolor for some time. Perhaps his early experiments in color lithography of 1879-1880 were an impetus for watercolor painting. But Whistler's monochromatic watercolor illustrations for the Thompson catalogue demonstrate considerable skill by 1878. Earlier pencil drawings related to etchings had been covered with wash blocks as part of Whistler's working process, and even some surviving objects from his youth are watercolors. By the mid-1870s Whistler was thinning out his oils to achieve translucent layers of color that parallel the effects of watercolor painting. Although Whistler applied his thinned-oil technique to both portraits and landscapes, it seems particularly suited to river and beach scenes–subjects concerned with water. All this argues for a certain amount of cross-fertilization of Whistler's technique as he shifted his interest from one medium to the next. Some of his watercolor beach scenes from the 1880s have a similar visual impact to small seascapes executed in oil during the same period.