James McNeill WhistlerWhistler suddenly shot to fame like a meteor at a crucial moment in the history of art, a field in which he was a pioneer. Like the impressionists, with whom he sided, he wanted to impose his own ideas. Whistler’s work can be divided into four periods. The first may be called a period of research in which he was influenced by the Realism of Gustave Courbet and by Japanese art. Whistler then discovered his own originality in the Nocturnes and the Cremorne Gardens series, thereby coming into conflict with the academics who wanted a work of art to tell a story. When he painted the portrait of his mother, Whistler entitled it Arrangement in Grey and Black and this is symbolic of his aesthetic theories. When painting the Cremorne Pleasure Gardens it was not to depict identifiable figures, as did Renoir in his work on similar themes, but to capture an atmosphere. He loved the mists that hovered over the banks of the Thames, the pale light, and the factory chimneys which at night turned into magical minarets. Night redrew landscapes, effacing the details. This was the period in which he became an adventurer in art; his work, which verged on abstraction, shocked his contemporaries. The third period is dominated by the full-length portraits that brought him his fame. He was able to imbue this traditional genre with his profound originality. He tried to capture part of the souls of his models and placed the characters in their natural habitats. This gave his models a strange presence so that they seem about to walk out of the picture to physically encounter the viewer. By extracting the poetic substance from individuals he created portraits described as “mediums” by his contemporaries, and which were the inspiration for Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Towards the end of his life, the artist began painting landscapes and portraits in the classical tradition, strongly influenced by Velázquez. Whistler proved to be extremely rigorous in ensuring his paintings coincided with his theories. He never hesitated in crossing swords with the most famous art theoreticians of his day. His personality, his outbursts, and his elegance were a perfect focus for curiosity and admiration. He was a close friend of Stéphane Mallarmé, and admired by Marcel Proust, who rendered homage to him in A La Recherche du Temps Perdu. He was also a provocative dandy, a prickly socialite, a demanding artist, and a daring innovator. |
Contents
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25 | |
HARMONY OF GOLD AND ANGERTHE PEACOCK ROOM THE RUSKIN TRIAL 18721880 | 53 |
THE PORTRAITS | 79 |
MARRIAGE HONORSTHE GENTLE ART OF MAKING ENEMIES18881890 | 103 |
HANDSOME PRAISE 18971903 | 139 |
BIOGRAPHY | 155 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 157 |
INDEX | 158 |
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admired aesthetic Alfred Stevens American art critic asked attack Battersea Bridge Baudelaire beautiful Birnie Philip Black and Gold Blue and Silver British Artists butterfly canvas Chelsea Courbet created Cremorne Gardens decorated Degas depicted drawings dress Duret engravings etchings exhibition Falling Rocket fireworks Flesh Color France Freer Gallery French friends Gallery of Art Grosvenor Gallery guineas harmony Hunterian Art Gallery ideas James James McNeill Whistler James Whistler Japanese John Ruskin Lady Meux Leyland look Lyme Regis Monet Museum never night Nocturne in Black Nocturne in Blue O’Clock Lecture Oscar Wilde paintbrush painter palette Paris pastels Pays de Porcelaine picture pink poet portrait pose Princesse du Pays Proust replied Robert de Montesquiou Rossetti Royal Academy Ruskin Salon Sir William sketches Stéphane Mallarmé studio Symphony Tate Gallery Thames Tite Street Valparaiso Velasquez Venice visited Walter Greaves Whistler’s painting White Girl wrote yellow young