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WHISTLER, JAMES ABBOTT

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 597 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WHISTLER, See also:JAMES See also:ABBOTT MeNEILL (1834-1903), See also:American artist, was See also:born at See also:Lowell, See also:Massachusetts, on the loth of See also:July 1834. His See also:father was See also:Major G. W. Whistler, and his See also:mother one of the See also:Baltimore See also:family of Winans. He was first heard of in See also:Europe in 1857, when he had already been an See also:art student, in See also:Paris, in the studio of See also:Gleyre. His first etchings, those known as " The See also:French Set," were the means of bringing him under the See also:notice of certain See also:people interested in art, but the circulation of these first, like that of his later etchings, has always, of See also:necessity, been more limited than their fame. The impressions from each See also:plate are generally few. It was still in See also:etching that Whistler continued his labours, and, coming to See also:London in 185g, it appears, he almost at once addressed himself to the See also:chronicle of the See also:quaint See also:riverside buildings and the See also:craft of the See also:great stream—the See also:Thames " below See also:Bridge." The " French Set " had included De See also:Hooch-like or See also:Nicholas See also:Maes-like genre pieces, such as "La Vieille aux Toques," the " Marchande de moutarde," and "The See also:Kitchen," this last incomparably improved and perfected by the retouching that was accomplished a See also:quarter of a See also:century after the first performance. The Thames See also:series of sixteen etchings, wrought chiefly in 1859, disclosed a new See also:vision of the See also:river, in which there was expressed, with perfect draughtsmanship, with a hitherto unparalleled command of vivacious See also:line, the See also:form of See also:barge and clipper, of warehouse, See also:wharf and waterside See also:tavern. " The See also:Pool," " Thames See also:Police " and " See also:Black See also:Lion Wharf " are perhaps the finest of this series. Before it was begun, Whistler, ere he See also:left Paris, had proceeded far with a plate, existing only in the See also:state of trial See also:proof, and, in that, of extreme rarity. It is called " Paris, Ile de la Cite," and has distinct and curious manifestations of a See also:style to be more generally adopted at a later See also:period.

For several years after the completion of the " Sixteen Etchings," Whistler etched comparatively little; but about 1870 we find him entering what has been described as his " Leyland period," on See also:

account of his connexion with the wealthy shipowner and art See also:patron, Mr See also:Frederick R. Leyland, of See also:Prince's See also:Gate, whose See also:house became famous for Whistler's See also:Peacock See also:Room,' painted in 1877. In that period he worked greatly in dry-point. The " See also:Model Resting," one of the most graceful of his figure pieces, and " Fanny Leyland "—an exquisite instance of girl See also:portraiture—are notable performances of this See also:time. To it also belong the largely conceived dry-points, so economical of means and endowed with so singular a unity of effect, the " London Bridge " and " See also:Price's See also:Candle-See also:works." A little later came the splendid visions of the then disappearing wooden See also:bridges of See also:Battersea and Putney, and the plate " The See also:Adam and See also:Eve," which records the river-front of old See also:Chelsea. This, however, is only seen in perfection in the most rare proofs taken before the publication by the See also:firm of See also:Hogarth. From these plates we pass almost imperceptibly to the period of the Venetian etchings, for in 1879, at the instance of the See also:Fine Art Society, Whistler made a sojourn in See also:Venice, and here he wrought, or, to speak accurately, commenced, not only the set of prints known as the " Venice Set," but also the " Twenty-six Etchings "—likewise chiefly, though not wholly, of Venice—issued later by the firm of See also:Dowdeswell. One or two of the See also:minor See also:English subjects of the " Twenty-six Etchings "—those done after the artist's return from Venice—give indications of the phase reached more clearly in certain little prints executed a few years later, and, with perhaps one exception, never formally published. " See also:Fruit See also:Shop," " Old Clothes Shop," and " See also:Fish Shop, busy Chelsea," belong to this time. Later, and See also:bent upon doing See also:justice to quite different themes, which demand different methods, the ever flexible artist again changes his way, and—not to speak of the dainty little records of the places about the See also:Loire, which in method have See also:affinity with the pieces last named—we have ' Whistler quarrelled with Leyland, and eventually painted his See also:life-See also:size portrait as a See also:devil with horns and hoofs." Steps, See also:Amsterdam," " Nocturne, See also:Dance House," with its magical See also:suggestion of See also:movement and See also:light, and the admirable landscape " See also:Zaandam." With the mention of these things may fitly See also:close a See also:sketch of Whistler's periods in etching; but before proceeding to other branches of his See also:work, the See also:main characteristics of the whole series of etchings (of which, in See also:Wedmore's Whistler's Etchings, nearly 300 examples are described) should be briefly indicated. These main characteristics are precision and vivacity; freedom, flexibility, See also:infinite technical resource, at the service always of the most alert and comprehensive observation; an See also:eye that no picturesqueness of light and shade, no interesting grouping of line, can ever See also:escape—an eye, that is, that is emancipated from conventionality, and See also:sees these things therefore with equal willingness in a See also:cathedral and a See also:mass of scaffolding, in a Chelsea shop and in a suave nude figure, in the See also:facade of a Flemish See also:palace and in a " great See also:wheel " at See also:West See also:Kensington. Mr Whistler's pictures have as a See also:chief source of their attractiveness those See also:mental qualities of alertness and emancipation.

See also:

Charm of See also:colour and of handling enhance the hold which they obtain upon such people of See also:taste as may be ready to receive them. There are but very few of them, however, at least very few oil pictures, when one considers the number of years since the artist began to labour; and one notable fact must be at once understood—the admitted masterpieces in See also:painting belong almost entirely to the earlier time. " Sarasate " is an exception, and " See also:Lady See also:Archibald See also:Campbell," and in its smaller, but still charming, way " The Little See also:Rose of Lyme Regis "; but even these—See also:save the " Little Rose "—are of 1885 or thereabouts. A few years earlier than they are the " Connie Gilchrist," the " See also:Miss See also:Alexander," and the " See also:Rosa Corder," and the Thames " Nocturnes "; but we go farther back to reach the " Portrait of the Painter's Mother," which is now in the Luxembourg; the " Portrait of See also:Carlyle," now at See also:Glasgow; the " Cremorne Gardens," the " Nocturne, See also:Valparaiso See also:Harbour," the " See also:Music Room," with little Miss Annie See also:Haden See also:standing by the piano while her mother plays, and the " See also:White Girl," or " Little White Girl," in which Whistler shows the See also:influence, but never the domination, of the See also:Japanese. Of the slight but always exquisitely harmonious studies in See also:water colour, undertaken by Whistler in his See also:middle period, none See also:call for See also:special notice. To the middle time, too, belong, not perhaps all of his slight but delicately modelled pastels of the figure, but at least his more universally accepted pastels of Venetian scenes, in which he caught the sleepy beauty of the Venetian by-way. In See also:pastel, as in painting, in water colour and in etching, Whistler has never been unmindful of the particular qualities of the See also:medium in which he has worked, nor of the applicability of a given medium to a given subject. The result, accordingly, is not now a victory and now a failure, now a " See also:hit " and now a" miss," but rather a See also:succession of triumphs great and small. One other medium taken up by Whistler must now be mentioned. His lithographs—his drawings on the See also:stone in many instances, and in others his drawings on that " lithographic See also:paper " which with some people is the easy substitute for the stone to-See also:day—are perhaps See also:half as numerous as his etchings. Mr T. R.

Way has catalogued about a See also:

hundred. 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, of unimaginable and poetic See also:mystery; others are See also:bright and dainty indications of quaint prettiness in the old See also:Faubourg St Germain, and of the sober lines of certain Georgian churches in Soho and Bloomsbury. An initiator in his own See also:generation, and ever tastefully experimental, Whistler no doubt has found enjoyment in the variety of the mediums he has worked in, and in the variety of subjects he has brilliantly tackled. The See also:absence of concentration in the Whistlerian temperament, the lack of great continuity of effort, may probably prove a See also:drawback to his taking exactly the See also:place as a painter of oil pictures, which, in other circumstances, his See also:genius and his taste would most certainly have secured for him. In the future Whistler must be accounted, in oil painting, a See also:master exquisite but rare. But the number and the range of his etched subjects and the extraordinary variety of See also:perception and of skill which he has brought to See also:bear upon the See also:execution of his nearly three hundred coppers, ensure, and have indeed already compassed, the See also:acceptance of him as a master among masters in that art of etching. See also:Rembrandt's, See also:Van Dyck's, See also:Meryon's, See also:Claude's, are, in fact, the only names which there is full See also:warranty for pronouncing beside his own. No account of Whistler's career would be See also:complete without a reference to his supremely controversial See also:personality. In 1878 he brought a See also:libel See also:action against See also:Ruskin for his criticisms in Fors Clavigera (1877). Ruskin had denounced one of his nocturnes at the Grosvenor See also:Gallery as " a pot of paint flung in the public See also:face." After a See also:long ,trial, Whistler was awarded a See also:farthing See also:damages. His examination caused much See also:interest, especially in See also:artistic circles, on account of his attitude in vindication of the purely artistic See also:side of art; and it was in the course of it that he answered the question as to how long a certain " impression " had taken him to execute by saying, " All my life." His eccentricity of pose and See also:dress, combined with his artistic arrogance, See also:sharp See also:tongue, and See also:bitter See also:humour, made him one of the most talked-about men in London, and his mots were quoted every-where. He followed up his See also:quarrel with Ruskin by See also:publishing a satirical pamphlet, Whistler v.

Ruskin: Art v. Art Critics. In 1885 he gave his Ten o'See also:

Clock Lecture in London, afterwards embodied in The See also:Gentle Art of Making Enemies (189o). The substance of this flippantly written and amusing outburst was an insistence on the See also:liberty of the artist to do what was right in his artistic eyes, and the inability of the public or the critics to have any ideas about art See also:worth considering at all. In 1895 another quarrel, with See also:Sir See also:William See also:Eden, whose wife's portrait Whistler had painted, but refused to See also:hand over, came into the courts in Paris; and Whistler, though allowed to keep his picture, was condemned in damages. In later years he lived mainly in Paris, but he returned to See also:Pie in London in 1902; and he died on the 17th of July 1903 at 74 See also:Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. In 1888 he had married Mrs See also:Goodwin, widow of E. W. Goodwin, the architect, and daughter of J. B. See also:Philip, the sculptor; she died in 1896, leaving no See also:children. In 1886 he became See also:president of the Royal Society of See also:British Artists (a See also:title at which afterwards he scoffed); and he took a leading See also:part later in See also:founding the See also:International Art Society, of which he was the first president.

His " Nocturne in See also:

blue and See also:silver " was presented to the See also:National Gallery after his See also:death by the National Art Collection Fund. See also 'I T. R. Way and G. R. See also:Dennis, The Art of J. McN. Whistler (1901); F. Wedmore, Mr Whistler's Etchings; See also:Theodore Duret, Histoire de J. McN. Whistler et de son teuvre (19o4); See also:Mortimer Menpes, Whistler as I knew him; W. G.

See also:

Bowdoin, Whistler, the See also:Man and his Work (1902) ; See also:Catalogue of Memorial See also:Exhibition (Inter-national Society, 19o5); and E. R. and J. See also:Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler (1908). (F.

End of Article: WHISTLER, JAMES ABBOTT

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