The Angry Sea
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) · 1883 or 1884
The Angry Sea is one of the sparest and most abstract of Whistler's small oils. When Whistler exhibited it at the Dowdeswells' gallery in 1884, unsympathetic reviewers complained that paintings like this were mere daubs, dismissing such efforts as unfinished sketches not fit for public display. The fashion writer for the Court Circular damned The Angry Sea with ironic praise, noting that "this wonderful artist uses frames of greenish gold wherever the picture requires such a setting. A strip of angry grey-green sea, framed in green gold, against dull pink background [the color of the gallery walls] is an exquisite arrangement of colour."
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