# Variations in Violet and Grey—Market Place, Dieppe

**James McNeill Whistler** (American, 1834–1903)  
1885  
Gouache and watercolor on off-white wove paper, mounted on academy board  
7 15/16 x 5 in. (20.2 x 12.7 cm)

Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.512. [The museum's record](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/16863).

## About this work

A market square in the Normandy port of Dieppe is laid in with fluid washes of watercolour and gouache in violet and grey, figures and stalls suggested rather than described. In the 1880s Whistler made many small watercolours and oil panels of house fronts, streets and beaches on trips to Dieppe and elsewhere, intimate pictures that could be made quickly on the spot. The musical title, a habit of his, signals that the arrangement of colour matters more than topography.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

James McNeill Whistler painted this in 1885, aged 51. 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 51
- Real size: about 8 × 5 in (20 × 13 cm). The original is small: even the 8 × 10 in print shows it larger than life.
- Century: 19th century
- Movement: [Realism](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/realism)
- Subjects: Towns, Street Scene, Markets
- 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/868.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/868/1920.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
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- 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

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/variations-in-violet-and-grey-market-place-dieppe-met-16863).