Violet and Silver—The Deep Sea

Violet and Silver—The Deep Sea — James Abbott McNeill Whistler. 1893.

Medium: Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 50.2 × 73.3 cm (19 3/4 × 28 7/8 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

After years of painting seascapes on a significantly smaller scale, James McNeill Whistler returned briefly to a large-format canvas to capture a hot summer day on the water near Brittany, France. The artist likely painted this seascape while boating off the coast as a crewman steadied their vessel. This could account for the unusually broad handling of paint and thick touches of pigment apparent throughout the composition, particularly in the clouds and gently cresting waves. Here, Whistler demonstrated his enduring passion for the myriad relationships of color offered by the ever-changing sea.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.