James McNeill Whistler - The Note in Orange and Blue (Sweet Shop), 1884

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This relatively small, horizontal, rectangular oil painting depicts a shop’s storefront on the first floor of a reddish-brown brick building. A large paneled window dominates the storefront. Items can be seen on shelves through the window. A simple brown door is to our right of the window. A horizontal band of blue paint extends above the window and door and beyond both to our left and right. Two figures are standing and looking into our left side of the window; three small figures that may be children are standing on the sidewalk to our right of the storefront. A partial view of two windows are visible above the storefront.  The surface of the painting shows wear in the form of cracking, making it more difficult to recognize individual features.

James McNeill Whistler (Lowell, Massachusetts, 1834 - 1903, London, England)

The Note in Orange and Blue (Sweet Shop), 1884

Oil on panel, 12 x 18 cm (4 3/4 x 7 1/16 in.)

Veronese Room

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Commentary

This small painting is one of several works of shop fronts that James McNeil Whistler painted in St. Ives, a seaside town in Cornwall, England. It was one of Isabella Stewart Gardner’s first purchases from the artist. She hung it, along with three other Whistler works, next to one another in the Veronese Room.