James Whistler biography

Dromo's Den

James Whistler Biography

WHISTLER, James Abbott McNeill (1834–1903). An American painter and etcher. He was born at Lowell, Mass., July 10, 1834, of an old American military family. His father, Major George Washington Whistler, of the United States army, was a distinguished engineer, and his mother, a Miss McNeill of Wilmington, N. C., was of a well-known Southern family. In 1837 the family removed to Stonington, Conn., thence in 1840 to Springfield, Mass., and in 1843 to St. Petersburg, Russia, Major Whistler having been commissioned by the Czar to construct the railroad between St. Petersburg and Moscow. While in St. Petersburg Whistler attended the Imperial Art Academy. After the Major's death (1849) the family returned to Stonington, then settled at Pomfret, Conn., where the lad was sent to school preparatory to entering West Point in 1851. Military discipline and attention to detail were odious to him, and although he distinguished himself in drawing, his record in other subjects was such that after three years he was dismissed from the academy. He was, however, assigned to the United States Coast Survey, but did not remain long, because of a prank in engraving caricatures on the margin of a plate executed in that service. In 1856 he became a pupil of the classicist Gleyre in Paris, but was not perceptibly influenced by this master. He was for some time a follower of Courbet, whose sincere realism he deeply admired, and was intimate with Fantin-Latour and Legros. The low tones and the grand lines of his work call Velazquez to mind, though he never saw the best of the great Spaniard's works in Madrid. From the Japanese he learned subtle decorative effects. But none of these elements dominate his art to such an extent that he can with propriety be called any man's pupil. His individuality was from the beginning unique.

From 1857 to 1863 his pictures were refused at the Salon; but in the latter year his "Little White Girl" achieved a signal success in the Salon des Refusés. As an etcher he found earlier recognition. His Little French Series {1858) representing Parisian views, some of a genre character, established his reputation, and the wonderful Thames Series (1871) placed him in the first rank. Being executed with considerable detail, these plates met with greater approbation than those of his later life, when he had carried the process of selection to its logical conclusion. His later subjects were taken from Holland, France, and other localities which he visited, but the best known are the First Venice Series (1880) and the Second Venice Series (1881). They are the culmination of his etching, and place him in the same rank with Rembrandt, the world's greatest etcher, whom he even excels in subtlety of execution. In the rendition of color and of light and shade, in the subtle grouping of line, these works are unique. Whistler was also highly successful in dry-point etching and lithographic drawing, in which media he executed a number of plates. Some 300 of his etchings have been published with comments by Frederic Wedmore (1899), and good examples may be found in the print rooms of the Venice Academy, Dresden Gallery, Bibliotheque Nationale, British Museum, Public Library, New York, and elsewhere.

The eccentricities of Whistler and his quarrels with English artists and critics during his long residence in London from 1859 were, for a long time, better known than his paintings. He was of a very combative disposition, and profoundly impressed with the importance of his own views. His central idea was that painting should appeal only to the eye, and that it was not a medium for the expression of ideas or emotions, the subject being absolutely irrelevant. Emphasizing the analogy with music, he called his paintings arrangements, symphonies, nocturnes, and the like, pitching them in one or two related color tones. For him the public and the critics were fools with no right to an opinion whatever. He quarreled indiscriminately with friend and foe, chiefly by means of public letters, in which he gave vent to an inimitable wit and satire. Especially well known is his quarrel with John Ruskin, who in his Fors Clavigera (1877) had given vent to his feelings over one of Whistler’s "Nocturnes" in the following language: "I have-seen and heard much of cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask 200 guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face." The artist promptly sued for damages, and in the celebrated trial which followed he was awarded one farthing, which coin he triumphantly wore as a watch charm ever afterward. He was no less known for his wit, which usually carried a personal sting, and he left behind a wealth of anecdote. To propagate his ideas he turned increasingly to literature, developing a style as well balanced as it is clear and incisive. Ten o’Clock (1888), a lecture delivered at that hour of night, is a statement of his artistic theories; his other works are The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (1890), in which he was past master, and the Baronet and the Butterfly (1890), an account of a celebrated quarrel. No artist ever had a more interesting signature than Whistler’s butterfly, the movement of which suggests the sentiment of the painting or letter.

From the year 1859 Whistler resided chiefly in London, making frequent journeys to Paris, and journeying to Venice in 1880. In 1866, unexpectedly, he visited Valparaiso, Chile. It was before 1890 that he executed most of his paintings. Best known among them is the portrait of the "Artist’s Mother" (Luxembourg) — an arrangement in gray and black, executed with rather more detail than most of his works, and a charming picture of placid domesticity. Of almost equal merit is his portrait of Carlyle (1872, Glasgow Museum), in which he has immortalized the thinker. His portrait of Miss Alexander (owned by W. C. Alexander), in gray and green, is delicate and subtle in execution. These portraits are not mere faces or figures, but rather figure paintings, with masterful well-arranged backgrounds. Other celebrated examples of female portraits are Kose Whistler (1862, Boston Museum); "The Yellow Buskin" (Wilstach collection, Philadelphia): "Miss Rosa Corder" (Frick collection, New York); "The Gold Girl, Connie Gilchrist" (Metropolitan Museum); "Lady in a Fur Jacket" (William Burrell); Lady Meux; and Miss Florence Leyland (Brooklyn Institute Museum). His portraits of men include those of his friend Theodore Duret and of Sir Henry Irving as Philip II of Spain (both in Metropolitan Museum); Comte de Montesquieu (Frick collection, New York); and the violinist Sarasate, an arrangement in black (Pittsburgh Academy). Among his celebrated figure subjects are "The Lange Leitzen" (1864, J. J. Johnson, Philadelphia); "At the Piano" (1867), showing the passing influence of Rossetti; "A Princess of the Land of Porcelain" (1868, Freer collection, National Gallery, Washington) ; the "Music Room," a harmony in green and gold (Col. Frank J. Hecker, Detroit) ; and the wonderful "Symphony in White, No. 3" (Edmund Davis), almost Hellenic in spirit.

Few artists had as broad a range of subjects as Whistler. His landscapes portray the mysterious beauty of the night and the majesty of the ocean; who before him saw the splendor of the London fog? He discovered beauty in all about him, in the squalid quarters of London and in the commonplace of the drawing room as well as in the magic canals of Venice. Among his principal "Nocturnes" are "Cremorne Gardens, No. 2" (Metropolitan Museum) ; the "Falling Rockets" (Mrs. Samuel Untermyer, ''Greystone," on the Hudson) (black and gold) ; "St. Mark's, Venice" (blue and gold) ; "Battersea Bridge" (blue and silver) ; "Thames in Ice" (National Gallery, Washington) ; "Chelsea Snow" (gray and gold) ; "Southampton Water" (Art Institute, Chicago). Among marine views are "Valparaiso ' Harbor" (Freer collection, National Gallery), a twilight scene in flesh color and green; "Blue Wave, Biarritz" (Alfred A. Pope) ; and "The Ocean" (gray and green), in the Frick collection. To these must be added some of the many views of London, like "Trafalgar Square," "Westminster" (Johnson collection, Philadelphia), and "Westminster Bridge" (Alfred A. Pope). Whistler also executed many fascinating water colors, and his Venetian pastels equal, in delicacy and refinement, anything that has yet been done in that medium. As a decorator Whistler was also important, and his soft, restful colors have exercised a wide influence upon household decoration. Among his best-known decorations are those for the music room of his friend Sarasate in white and clove color (Paris); and for the celebrated "Peacock Room" formerly in Mr. Leyland's London house, in blue and gold (now in the National Gallery, Washington).

For a long time Whistler did not meet with deserved recognition, but in 1887 he was elected president of the Royal Society of British Artists. Under his administration the quality of art exhibited by the society greatly improved, but its finances declined, and in 1888 Whistler and his following withdrew. He remarked, "The artists have come out, and the British remain." In the same year he married the widow of the architect E. W. Godwin, and she exercised a quieting influence on his life and character. The appreciation so long denied was fully meted out to him from 1889. He was made honorary member of the academies of Munich, Dresden, Rome, etc., Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, Knight of the Bavarian Order of St. Michael, and he received gold medals at the Paris Exposition, at Chicago, Philadelphia, Antwerp, Dresden, etc. During the years 1898–1901 he taught at intervals at the Académie Carmen, Paris, a school opened under his supervision, which in the early years was attended by large numbers of American students. These gradually dwindled down to such a small number that the school was closed. To this last period belong the "Master Smith" and the "Little Rose of Lyme Regis" (both in the Boston Museum) ; "The Little Blue Bonnet" (Herbert Pratt) ; "The Little Lady Sophie of Soho" (Freer collection, National Gallery, Washington). In 1892 he settled in Paris, but in 1895 returned to England because of Mrs.Whistler's ill health. After her death in 1896, except for short trips abroad, he lived mostly in London, where he died July 17, 1903.

Whistler holds a unique position in the development of art. He was essentially modern, and something of all the most modern tendencies of art centred in him, and yet he was absolutely independent of them all. An avowed realist, he differed from others in that nature merely supplied him the material for color harmonies. His paintings were often impressions, but, unlike the Impressionists, he was not primarily a painter of light, preferring sad colors. He resembled the Japanese in the peculiar decorative character of his work. The effect is subtle and dreamy, as of a vision rather than reality. Although he was a fine draftsman, color was to him the chief factor in painting, and not even Velazquez was a greater master of color values. His brush work was careful and painstaking, although in the finished painting no trace of effort can be seen. His influence has materially affected the British, especially the Glasgow school, the American, and even the French school. Although his theories of art were essentially cosmopolitan his ambition was for American art, and he greatly wished his pictures to come into American hands–a wish richly fulfilled. The most comprehensive collection of Whistler's work was made by Charles L. Freer of Detroit, Mich., who presented it in 1906 to the National Gallery, Washington. It contains half a hundred oil paintings, water colors, etchings, etc.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 518-520.