James McNeill Whistler - The Beach at Selsey Bill 1881
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The Beach at Selsey Bill 1881
60x47cm oil/canvas
New Britain Museum of American Art
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From New Britain Museum of American Art:
Three figures sketched with only a few confident strokes animate the foreground of The Beach at Selsey Bill, most likely executed during a visit to his friend and promoter Charles Augustus Howell at Selsey Bill, a fishing community on the southern coast of England. However, the brushwork of the sky and loosely painted figures are unusual for Whistler. It has been suggested that Whistler might have begun the painting but it could have been scandalously completed by Howell’s mistress, the deceitful Rosa Frances Corder (1853-1894), a painter and forger. With its broad expanse of beach meeting the cool blue-violet sky high up on the canvas, this evocative work captures the atmosphere of a blustery day at the shore.