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  • Blue and Gold–The Rose Azalea
  • Blue and Gold–The Rose Azalea

Blue and Gold–The Rose Azalea

Draped female figure, holding a potted plant, posed before a folding screen; signed with the butterfly. Water color on brown paper.
Maker nationality and date
1834-1903
Date(s)
ca. 1893-1895
Medium
Watercolor with pastel and charcoal on brown paper
Dimension(s)
H x W: 27.8 × 18.1 cm (10 15/16 × 7 1/8 in)
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Object Number
F1894.25a-c
Production location
England, London, Chelsea
Theme
Figure; Studio
Signature(s)
Yellow-orange butterfly at center of right edge.
Provenance
Exhibition History
Copley Society of Art, The Copley Society Second Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art, November 19 to December 19, 1902
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia Water Color Club, Second Annual Exhibition, March 18 to April 1, 1903
Copley Society of Art, Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, February 23 to March 22, 1904
Palais de l'École des Beaux-Art, Exposition des Oeuvres de James McNeill Whistler, May 1905
City and County of San Francisco, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, February 20 to December 4, 1915
Selected Curatorial Remarks

1. Glazer, Jacobson, McCarthy, Roeder, wall label, 2019:
Whistler painted Blue and Gold–The Rose Azalea on the rough brown paper he typically favored when working with pastels. Here, he combined media even further by using pastel and charcoal with watercolor.

2. Lee Glazer, 2017:
There is some uncertainty about the date of this work. Correspondence and receipts show that Freer bought the piece from Whistler along with several other works on November 23, 1894 (Whistler to Freer, November 23, 1894, CLF Papers, FGA). It is possible that Freer paid Whistler in advance of the works' completion, for he wrote in September 1895 asking when they would be sent, and he did not receive the work until December 1896 (Freer to Whistler, December 24, 1896, CLF Papers, FGA)

3. Susan Hobbs, 1978:
While Whistler primarily worked in the watercolor medium in the 1880s, there are a few unusual examples which date from the 1890s. The artist's late watercolors, such as this one, are characterized by an opaque application of pigment. The effect is similar to that found in gouache. A folding screen, probably one of Whistler's own design, forms a graceful backdrop behind the model.

Selected Published References
1. Curry: James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, Pg. 205
This graceful figure stands as a lexicon of issues Whistler had begun to explore three decades earlier. The curving posture, draperies, and bowl of flowers recall the women in the "Six Projects." The screen behind the figure reminds us of Whistler's occasional forays as a designer of decorative art. Finally, his use of watercolor shows that he was able to manipulate one medium to obtain effects characteristic of another. Thickly applied opaque pigments echo the fragile, chalky surfaces of Tanagra figurines also seen in pastel drawings Whistler made at about the same time as The Rose Azalea.
Catalogue Raisonne number
M1392
MacDonald Catalogue number
Previous owner(s)
James McNeill Whistler (C.L. Freer source) (1834-1903)
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
SI Usage Statement

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