Everything about James Mcneill Whistler totally explained
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (July 14, 1834 – July 17, 1903) was an American-born, British-based painter and etcher. Averse to sentimentality in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". He took to signing his paintings with a stylized butterfly, possessing a long stinger for a tail. The symbol was apt, for Whistler's art was characterized by a subtle delicacy, in contrast to his combative public persona. Finding a parallel between painting and music, Whistler titled many of his works 'harmonies' and 'arrangements'.
Early life
Whistler was born to George Washington Whistler, a prominent engineer, and Anna Matilda McNeill in Lowell, Massachusetts. Beginning in 1842 his father was employed to work on the railroad in St. Petersburg, Russia. After moving to St. Petersburg, the young Whistler enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts and also learned French. At the Ruskin trial (see below), Whistler claimed Russia as his birthplace: "I shall be born when and where I want, and I don't choose to be born in Lowell," he declared. After the death of his father in 1849, James Whistler and his mother moved back to her hometown of Pomfret, Connecticut.
He attended local school and then transferred to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where his father had once taught drawing. His departure from West Point seems to have been due to a failure in a chemistry exam; as he himself put it later: "If silicon were a gas, I'd have been a general one day." In European society, he later presented himself as an impoverished Southern aristocrat, although to what extent he truly sympathized with the Southern cause during the American Civil War remains unclear.
Career
Controversy
Whistler is best known for the nearly monochromatic full-length figure titled Arrangement in Gray and Black: Portrait of the Artist's Mother, but usually referred to as Whistler's Mother. The painting was purchased by the French government and is housed in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
Whistler's painting (1862) caused controversy when exhibited in London and, later, at the Salon des Refusés in Paris. The painting epitomizes his theory that art should essentially be concerned with the beautiful arrangement of colors in harmony, not with the accurate portrayal of the natural world.
The Peacock Room
In the 1870s Whistler painted full length portraits of F.R. Leyland and his wife. Leyland subsequently commissioned the artist to decorate his dining room; the result was Whistler's Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room, now in the Freer Gallery of Art. The room was designed and painted in a rich and unified palette of brilliant blue-greens with over-glazing and metallic leaf, and is considered a high example of the Anglo-Japanese style. The painting was inspired by the blue and white china copied in watercolor for Sir Henry Thompson's catalogue, and from the porcelain both he and Leyland collected.
Artist and patron quarreled so violently over the room and the proper compensation for the work that their relationship was terminated. At one point, Whistler gained access to Leyland's home and painted two fighting peacocks meant to represent the artist and his patron; one holds a paint brush and the other holds a bag of money. The entire room was later purchased by industrialist and aesthete Charles Lang Freer, and installed in his collection. The published communications between Freer and Whistler reveal how Whistler's interest in those collecting his work in his native country (the United States) evolved over many decades.
Ruskin trial
In 1877 Whistler sued the critic John Ruskin for libel after the critic condemned his painting Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket. Whistler exhibited the work in the Grosvenor Gallery that year alongside Edward Burne-Jones and others, and was reviewed by Ruskin in his publication Fors Clavigera on the July 2nd, 1877. Ruskin praised Burne-Jones, whilst he attacked Whistler:
» For Mr. Whistler's own sake, no less than for the protection of the purchaser, Sir Coutts Lindsay [founderof the Grosvenor Gallery] ought not to have admitted works into the gallery in which the ill-educated conceit of the artist so nearly approached the aspect of willful imposture. I've seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a [[Wiktionary:coxcomb |
Thecase came to trial the following year and was heard at the
Queen's Bench of the
High Court from
November 25
th to 26
th 1878. The lawyer for
John Ruskin, Attorney General Sir John Holker, cross examined Whistler;
» Holker: "What is the subject of Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket?"
Whistler: "It is a night piece and represents the fireworks at Cremorne Gardens." » Holker: "Not a view of Cremorne?"
Whistler: "If it were A View of Cremorne it would certainly bring about nothing but disappointment on the part of the beholders. It is an artistic arrangement. That is why I call it a nocturne...." » Holker: "Did it take you much time to paint the Nocturne in Black and Gold? How soon did you knock it off?"
Whistler: "Oh, I 'knock one off' possibly in a couple of days - one day to do the work and another to finish it..." » Holker: "The labour of two days is that for which you ask two hundred guineas?"
Whistler: "No, I ask it for the knowledge I've gained in the work of a lifetime." |
Though suing for one thousand pounds plus costs, Whistler won a mere
farthing in nominal
damages. The cost of the case, together with huge debts from building his residence, "The White House" in
Tite Street,
Chelsea, (designed with
E. W. Godwin, 1877–8) bankrupted him by May 1879 despite his despairing commercial ventures, resulting in an auction of his work, collections and house. Stansky notes the irony that the
Fine Art Society of London, which had organized a collection to pay for Ruskin's legal costs, supported him in etching
"the stones of Venice" (and in exhibiting the series in 1883) to recoup himself. He published his account of the trial in the
pamphlet Whistler v. Ruskin: Art and Art Critics in
December 1878, soon after the trial.
After the Ruskin trial, everything he mentioned or wrote about his work, and especially everything he told his biographers was done in a way in which he could dissociate himself from the English school of painting. His main purpose was to lose any relations he'd with the couple of enemies he'd made among the Royal Academicians, and the artists who he'd been close to during the 1860's. Despite his attempts to give the notion that he didn't belong to any school, he's without a doubt one of the few Victorian painters who is known for revitalizing the 'grand manner' of British painting. [James McNeil Whistler, 23]
Other relationships
Friendly with various French artists, he illustrated the book Les Chauves-Souris with
Antonio de La Gandara. He also knew the
impressionists, notably
Edouard Manet and
Edgar Degas, and was a leading figure in the
Aesthetic movement. As a young artist, he maintained a close friendship with
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Whistler's lover and model for The White Girl, Joanna Hiffernan, also posed for
Gustave Courbet. He painted the full-length life sized portrait of her in the winter of 1861-2 in a studio at 18 boulevard Pigalle in Paris. Historians speculate that Courbet's erotic painting of her as
L'Origine du monde led to the breakup of the friendship between Whistler and Courbet.
In 1888, Whistler married Beatrix, the widow of
E. W. Godwin. The five years of their marriage (before her death from cancer) were very happy.
He was well-known for his biting wit, especially in exchanges with his friend
Oscar Wilde. Both were figures in the
café society of
Paris at the turn of the
20th century. It was once said that the young Oscar Wilde attended one of Whistler's dinners, and hearing his host make some brilliant remark, Wilde apparently said, "I wish I'd said that". Whistler riposted, "You will, Oscar, you will!"
Printmaking
A supremely gifted engraver, Whistler produced numerous etchings, lithographs, and dry-points. His lithographs, some drawn on stone, others drawn directly on "lithographie" paper, are perhaps half as numerous as his etchings. Some of the lithographs are of figures slightly draped; two or three of the very finest are of
Thames subjects — including a "nocturne" at Limehouse; while others depict the
Faubourg Saint-Germain in Paris, and Georgian churches in
Soho and
Bloomsbury in London. The etchings include portraits of family, mistresses, and intimate street scenes in London and
Venice.
Legacy
Whistler's influence was significant, and has been the subject of museum exhibitions and publications. A trip to Venice in 1880 to create a series of etchings not only reinvigorated Whistler's finances, but also re-energized the way in which artists and photographers interpreted the city. His tonalism had a profound effect on many American artists, including
John Singer Sargent and
William Merritt Chase. Famous protégés included
Oscar Wilde and
impressionist painter
Walter Sickert; Whistler fell out with both Wilde and Sickert. He successfully sued Sickert in the
1890s over a minor legal issue in France. When Wilde was publicly acknowledged to be a
homosexual in
1895, Whistler openly mocked him. Another significant influence was upon
Arthur Frank Mathews, whom Whistler met in Paris in the late 1890s. Mathews took Whistler's
Tonalism to San Francisco, spawning a broad use of that technique among turn of the century California artists.
Once, after he'd suffered a heart attack, a Dutch newspaper
incorrectly reported Whistler dead. He wrote to the newspaper, saying that reading his own obituary induced a "tender glow of health".
The operetta
Patience pokes fun at the
Aesthetic movement, and the lead character of Reginald Bunthorne is often identified as send-up of Oscar Wilde. In reality Bunthorne seems to be an amalgam of several prominent artists, writers and Aesthetic figures. Bunthorne wears a monocle and has prominent white streak in his dark hair, as did Whistler.
Whistler published two books which detailed his thoughts on life and art:
Ten O'Clock Lecture (1885), and
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (1890). He was, in turn, the subject of a contemporaneous biography by a friend: the printmaker
Joseph Pennell collaborated with his wife
Elizabeth Robins Pennell to write
The Life of James McNeill Whistler, published in 1908.
Whistler's belief that art should concentrate on the arrangement of colors led many critics to see his work as a precursor of abstract art.
The house in which he was born is now preserved as the
Whistler House Museum of Art. He is buried at St Nicholas's Church in
Chiswick,
London.
Recognition
Whistler achieved worldwide recognition during his lifetime. In
1884 he was elected an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. In
1892 he was made an officer of the
Legion d'Honneur in France and he became a charter member and first president of the
International Society of Sculptors, Painters, & Gravers in
1898.
Gallery
Image:Whistler James Portrait of Whistler with Hat (1858).jpg|Portrait of Whistler with Hat (1858)
Image:James Abbot McNeill Whistler 001.jpg|At the Piano (1858-1859)
Image:Whistler James Brown and Silver Old Battersea Bridge 1859.jpg|Brown and Silver Old Battersea Bridge (1859)
Image:Whistler James Harmony in Green and Rose The Music Room 1861.jpg|Harmony in Green and Rose The Music Room (1861)
Image:Whistler James Grey and Silver Battersea Beach 1863.jpg|Grey and Silver Battersea Beach (1863)
Image:Wappingpainting.jpg|Wapping London (1860-1864)
Image:James Abbot McNeill Whistler 008.jpg|La Princesse du Pay de la Porcelaine (1863-1864)
Image:James Abbot McNeill Whistler 013.jpg|Symphonie in White No. 2, Girls in White (1864)
Image:James Abbot McNeill Whistler 007.jpg|Harmony in blue and silver: Trouville (1865)
Image:Whistler James The Beach at Selsey Bill 1865.jpg|The Beach at Selsey Bill (1865)
Image:Whistler James Symphony in White No 3 1866.jpg|Symphony in White No 3 (1866)
Image:Whistler James Nocturne in Blue and Gold Valparaiso Bay 1866.jpg|Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso Bay (1866)
Image:Whistler James Variations in Pink And Grey Chelsea 1871.jpg|Variations in Pink And Grey Chelsea (1871)
Image:Whistler James Symphony in Grey and Green The Ocean 1866-72.jpg|Symphony in Grey and Green The Ocean (1866-72)
Image:James Abbot McNeill Whistler 003.jpg|Arrangement in Gray and Black no 2 (Portrait of Thomas Carlyle) (1873)
Image:Whistler James Harmony in Grey and Green Miss Cicely Alexander 1873.jpg|Harmony in Grey and Green Miss Cicely Alexander (1873)
Image:Whistler James Harmony in Yellow and Gold The Gold Girl Connie Gilchrist 1873.jpg|Harmony in Yellow and Gold The Gold Girl (Connie Gilchrist) (1873)
Image:Whistler James Arrangement in Gray and Black No2 1873.jpg|Arrangement in Gray and Black No2 (1873)
Image:James Abbot McNeill Whistler 010.jpg|Nocturne in Gray and Gold, Westminster Bridge (c. 1871-1874)
Image:James Abbot McNeill Whistler 012.jpg|Nocturne in Black and Gold, The falling Rocket (1874)
Image:James Abbot McNeill Whistler 006.jpg| (c. 1872-1875)
Image:Whistler James Chelsea Wharf Grey and Silver 1875.jpg|Chelsea Wharf Grey and Silver (1875)
Image:Whistler Grau und Gold - Schnee in Chelsea.jpg|Grey and Gold - Snow in Chelsea (1876)
Image:Whistler James Nocturne Trafalgar Square Chelsea Snow 1876.jpg|Nocturne Trafalgar Square Chelsea Snow (1876)
Image:Whistler James Arrangement in White and Black 1876.jpg|Arrangement in White and Black (1876)
Image:Whistler James Arrangement in Yellow and Grey Effie Deans 1877.jpg|Arrangement in Yellow and Grey Effie Deans (1877)
Image:Whistler James Venetian Scene 1879.jpg|Venetian Scene (1879)
Image:Whistler James The Staircase Note in Red 1880.jpg|The Staircase Note in Red (1880)
Image:James Abbot McNeill Whistler 011.jpg|Nocturne in Pink and Grey, Portrait of Lady Meux (1881-1882)
Image:James Abbot McNeill Whistler 004.jpg|Arrangement in light pink and black, portrait of Théodore Duret (1883)
Image:Whistler James An Orange Note 1884.jpg|An Orange Note (1884)
Image:Whistler James Pink Note The Novelette 1884.jpg|Pink Note The Novelette (1884)
Image:Whistler James Mother of Pearl and Silver The Andalusian 1888-1900.jpg|Mother of Pearl and Silver The Andalusian (1888-1900)
Footnotes
Further Information
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