Flower Shop, Dieppe

Flower Shop, Dieppe is one of many images of old shop fronts in England, France, and Holland that James McNeill Whistler made from the early 1880s on. Like two such oil paintings in the Terra Foundation’s collection, Carlyle’s Sweetstuff Shop (TF 1992.147) and A Chelsea Shop (TF 1992.148), this watercolor painting presents the shop close-up and head-on, with any surrounding context cut off by the edges of the image. The rectilinear forms of windows, door, and lintel create a flat grid interrupted by the voids of the interior spaces open to the street and by the forms of two women, one outside the window and another standing just inside the doorway. Flower Shop, Dieppe is vertical in orientation and—for Whistler—uncharacteristically symmetrical in its organization, but the spontaneous application of thin watercolor wash, which in places allows the white paper to appear like flashes of sunlight on the building’s façade, relieves the rigor of the composition. Whistler’s loose watercolor technique dissolves details, inviting the impression of the shop front as a pure abstract, geometric design on the smooth paper surface.

Oils, Water-colors, Drawings, and Prints by James McNeill Whistler, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, April 24–May 13, 1934, no. 35 (as Flower Shops-Dieppe).

Whistler Pastels and Water Colours, Carroll Carstairs, New York, New York, January 12–February 5, 1938. [exh. cat.]

Regard sur James Abbott McNeill Whistler (James Abbott McNeill Whistler at a Glance), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 30, 1994.

Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920 (The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 15, 1999. [exh. cat.]

The Decorative Form: The Aesthetic Movement, Arts & Crafts and the Asian Influence in American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, September 16–December 5, 1999.

Figures and Forms: Selections from the Terra Foundation for the Arts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 9–July 9, 2000.

New Faces, New Places: Recent Additions to the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 14–December 31, 2000.

Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, April 1–October 31, 2005. [exh. brochure]

Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, April 1–October 29, 2006. [exh. brochure]

Pennell, Elizabeth Robins and Joseph Pennell. The Life of James McNeill Whistler. 5th ed., rev. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1911. Ill. facing p. 364 (as Shop Window at Dieppe).

Christie's New York, New York (November 12, 1985): 15. Ill. p. 15.

MacDonald, Margaret F. James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels, and Watercolours; A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven, Connecticut and London, England: Yale University Press, 1995. Text no. 1514, pp. 543–44; ill. no. 1514, p. 544 (color).

Regard sur cinq années d'expositions (Five years of Exhibitions at a Glance). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1997. Text p. 77; ill. p. 76 (color).