# The Yellow Room

**James McNeill Whistler** (American, 1834–1903)  
ca. 1883–84  
Watercolor and gouache on paperboard  
9 3/4 × 7 in. (24.8 × 17.8 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017.664. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/760942).

## About this work

A woman appears in a small interior washed with warm yellow, near a fireplace, in this watercolour and gouache of the early 1880s. Yellow was a favourite colour of Whistler’s for interiors, and in 1883 he decorated a London exhibition of his own etchings entirely in yellow and white. Here broad, liquid washes reduce the room to a few harmonies of colour and shape, the kind of small, intimate work he made alongside his grand portraits.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

James McNeill Whistler painted this in about 1883–84, aged about 44. It is now at The Met in New York.

### How it was made

- **Opaque watercolour.** Watercolour made opaque with white or chalk and laid in flat, even layers. Persian and Indian painters ground their colours from minerals, applied them with the finest brushes and burnished the finished page.
- **Watercolour.** Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.

### [James McNeill Whistler](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/james-mcneill-whistler)

American, 1834–1903; born in Lowell, Massachusetts; died in London

Whistler spent part of his boyhood in Russia, left West Point without graduating and trained as a painter in Paris before settling in London in 1859. He held that a picture was an arrangement of colour and form, and named his works symphonies, harmonies and nocturnes; a hostile review of one nocturne led to his 1878 libel suit against John Ruskin. He was equally committed to etching, and in his Venice plates of 1879–80 he left films of ink on the copper to suggest water and dusk.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Watercolor
- Culture: American
- The artist was about 44
- Real size: about 10 × 7 in (25 × 18 cm). The 8 × 10 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Realism](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/realism)
- Subjects: Fireplaces, Interiors, Women
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1285.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1285/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/the-yellow-room-met-760942).