'Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea', James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 1871 | Tate James Abbott McNeill Whistler Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea 1871 Support: 502 x 608 mm frame: 685 x 825 x 45 mm Collection Bequeathed by Miss Rachel and Miss Jean Alexander 1972 Reference Catalogue entry Summary Painted in August 1871, this is the first of Whistler's Nocturnes. In these works Whistler aimed to convey a sense of the beauty and tranquility of the Thames by night. It was Frederick Leyland who first used the name 'nocturne' to describe Whistler's moonlit scenes. It aptly suggests the notion of a night scene, but with musical associations. The expression was quickly adopted by Whistler, who later explained, By using the word 'nocturne' I wished to indicate an artistic interest alone, divesting the picture of any outside anecdotal interest which might have been otherwise attached to it.

A nocturne is an arrangement of line, form and colour first' (quoted in Dorment and MacDonald, p.122). Returning from a trip by steamer to Westminster, Whistler was inspired, one evening in August 1871, by a view of the river 'in a glow of rare transparency an hour before sunset' (Anna Whistler, the artist's mother, in a letter to Julia and Kate Palmer, 3 Nov. 1871, quoted in Dorment and MacDonald, p.122). He immediately rushed to his studio and painted a sunset (Variations in Violet and Green, private collection) and this moonlit scene at one sitting. The picture is painted on panel , primed with dark grey paint, over which Whistler applied thin layers of pigment in order to create a contrasting sense of luminosity. The view is from Battersea looking across to Chelsea, and it is possible to make out features on the horizon, such as the tower of Chelsea Old Church on the right.

In the foreground, a low barge and the figure of a fisherman are indicated with the minimum of detail, and the influence of Japanese art is evident in the restricted palette, the economy of line and the characteristic butterfly signature. This picture was exhibited, along with its pair, at the Dudley Gallery in November 1871. The critic for the Times revealed a rare appreciation of Whistler's Nocturnes, describing them as follows: They are illustrations of the theory that painting is so closely akin to music that the colours of the one may and should be used, like the ordered sounds of the other; that painting should not aim at expressing dramatic emotions, depicting incidents of history or recording facts of nature, but should be content with moulding our moods and stirring our imaginations, by subtle combinations of colour, through which all that painting has to say to us can be said, and beyond which painting has no valuable or true speech whatever' (The Times, 14 November 1871). Further reading: Richard Dorment and Margaret F.

MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1994, pp.122-3, no.46, reproduced in colour p.123. Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone (eds), The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones & Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.206-7 no.79, reproduced in colour p.207. Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer with the assistance of Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James MacNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980, no. 103, reproduced in colour plate 106. Frances Fowle Read more Display caption Whistler painted this view from Battersea Bridge looking across the Thames towards Chelsea. The tower of Chelsea Old Church is just visible on the right, and a fisherman stands in the foreground looking out to a low barge.

It was the first of Whistler’s series of nocturnes: paintings intended to convey a sense of the beauty and tranquillity of the River Thames in the evening or by night. The influence of Japanese woodblock prints is evident from the relatively small range of colours and the butterfly device at the lower centre, which Whistler used as his signature. Gallery label, November 2016 'Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea', James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 1871 | Tate James Abbott McNeill Whistler Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea 1871 Support: 502 x 608 mm frame: 685 x 825 x 45 mm Collection Bequeathed by Miss Rachel and Miss Jean Alexander 1972 Reference Catalogue entry Summary Painted in August 1871, this is the first of Whistler's Nocturnes. In these works Whistler aimed to convey a sense of the beauty and tranquility of the Thames by night. It was Frederick Leyland who first used the name 'nocturne' to describe Whistler's moonlit scenes.

It aptly suggests the notion of a night scene, but with musical associations. The expression was quickly adopted by Whistler, who later explained, By using the word 'nocturne' I wished to indicate an artistic interest alone, divesting the picture of any outside anecdotal interest which might have been otherwise attached to it. A nocturne is an arrangement of line, form and colour first' (quoted in Dorment and MacDonald, p.122). Returning from a trip by steamer to Westminster, Whistler was inspired, one evening in August 1871, by a view of the river 'in a glow of rare transparency an hour before sunset' (Anna Whistler, the artist's mother, in a letter to Julia and Kate Palmer, 3 Nov. 1871, quoted in Dorment and MacDonald, p.122). He immediately rushed to his studio and painted a sunset (Variations in Violet and Green, private collection) and this moonlit scene at one sitting. The picture is painted on panel , primed with dark grey paint, over which Whistler applied thin layers of pigment in order to create a contrasting sense of luminosity.

The view is from Battersea looking across to Chelsea, and it is possible to make out features on the horizon, such as the tower of Chelsea Old Church on the right. In the foreground, a low barge and the figure of a fisherman are indicated with the minimum of detail, and the influence of Japanese art is evident in the restricted palette, the economy of line and the characteristic butterfly signature. This picture was exhibited, along with its pair, at the Dudley Gallery in November 1871. The critic for the Times revealed a rare appreciation of Whistler's Nocturnes, describing them as follows: They are illustrations of the theory that painting is so closely akin to music that the colours of the one may and should be used, like the ordered sounds of the other; that painting should not aim at expressing dramatic emotions, depicting incidents of history or recording facts of nature, but should be content with moulding our moods and stirring our imaginations, by subtle combinations of colour, through which all that painting has to say to us can be said, and beyond which painting has no valuable or true speech whatever' (The Times, 14 November 1871). Further reading: Richard Dorment and Margaret F.

MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1994, pp.122-3, no.46, reproduced in colour p.123. Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone (eds), The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones & Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.206-7 no.79, reproduced in colour p.207. Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer with the assistance of Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James MacNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980, no. 103, reproduced in colour plate 106. Frances Fowle Read more Display caption Whistler painted this view from Battersea Bridge looking across the Thames towards Chelsea. The tower of Chelsea Old Church is just visible on the right, and a fisherman stands in the foreground looking out to a low barge.

It was the first of Whistler’s series of nocturnes: paintings intended to convey a sense of the beauty and tranquillity of the River Thames in the evening or by night. The influence of Japanese woodblock prints is evident from the relatively small range of colours and the butterfly device at the lower centre, which Whistler used as his signature. Gallery label, November 2016 Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea | Art UK Art UK | Discover Artworks Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea Start a discussion on Art Detective Notes Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account. Discard changes Edit Painted in August 1871, this is the first of Whistler's Nocturnes. In these works Whistler aimed to convey a sense of the beauty and tranquility of the Thames by night. It was Frederick Leyland who first used the name 'nocturne' to describe Whistler's moonlit scenes. It aptly suggests the notion of a night scene, but with musical associations.

The expression was quickly adopted by Whistler, who later explained, 'By using the word ''nocturne'' I wished to indicate an artistic interest alone, divesting the picture of any outside anecdotal interest which might have been otherwise attached to it. Read more A nocturne is an arrangement of line, form and colour first' (quoted in Dorment and MacDonald, p.122). Returning from a trip by steamer to Westminster, Whistler was inspired, one evening in August 1871, by a view of the river 'in a glow of rare transparency an hour before sunset' (Anna Whistler, the artist's mother, in a letter to Julia and Kate Palmer, 3 Nov. 1871, quoted in Dorment and MacDonald, p.122). He immediately rushed to his studio and painted a sunset ('Variations in Violet and Green', private collection) and this moonlit scene at one sitting. The picture is painted on panel, primed with dark grey paint, over which Whistler applied thin layers of pigment in order to create a contrasting sense of luminosity.

The view is from Battersea looking across to Chelsea, and it is possible to make out features on the horizon, such as the tower of Chelsea Old Church on the right. In the foreground, a low barge and the figure of a fisherman are indicated with the minimum of detail, and the influence of Japanese art is evident in the restricted palette, the economy of line and the characteristic butterfly signature. This picture was exhibited, along with its pair, at the Dudley Gallery in November 1871. The critic for The Times revealed a rare appreciation of Whistler's Nocturnes, describing them as follows: 'They are illustrations of the theory … that painting is so closely akin to music that the colours of the one may and should be used, like the ordered sounds of the other; that painting should not aim at expressing dramatic emotions, depicting incidents of history or recording facts of nature, but should be content with moulding our moods and stirring our imaginations, by subtle combinations of colour, through which all that painting has to say to us can be said, and beyond which painting has no valuable or true speech whatever' ('The Times', 14 November 1871). Further reading: Richard Dorment and Margaret F.

MacDonald, 'James McNeill Whistler', exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1994, pp.122–123, no.46, reproduced in colour p.123. Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone (eds), 'The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones & Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860–1910', exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.206–207 no.79, reproduced in colour p.207. Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer with the assistance of Hamish Miles, 'The Paintings of James MacNeill Whistler', New Haven and London, 1980, no. 103, reproduced in colour plate 106. Frances Fowle December 2000 Tate Britain Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea - Propose a discussion - Art Detective Sign in Propose a discussion Welcome to Art Detective. Please use the space below to provide information that might help the institution that owns this artwork. Institutions may also submit questions about works in their care.

Please do not submit requests for advice on valuations or unrelated artworks. Submit your suggestion jpg, png, pdf, doc, xls (max 6MB) Drop your files here Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea, James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), Tate photo credit: Tate Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea Artist(s) James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) Collection Bequeathed by Miss Rachel and Miss Jean Alexander 1972 Accession number No Description Painted in August 1871, this is the first of Whistler's Nocturnes. In these works Whistler aimed to convey a sense of the beauty and tranquility of the Thames by night. It was Frederick Leyland who first used the name 'nocturne' to describe Whistler's moonlit scenes. It aptly suggests the notion of a night scene, but with musical associations.

The expression was quickly adopted by Whistler, who later explained, 'By using the word ''nocturne'' I wished to indicate an artistic interest alone, divesting the picture of any outside anecdotal interest which might have been otherwise attached to it. A nocturne is an arrangement of line, form and colour first' (quoted in Dorment and MacDonald, p.122). Returning from a trip by steamer to Westminster, Whistler was inspired, one evening in August 1871, by a view of the river 'in a glow of rare transparency an hour before sunset' (Anna Whistler, the artist's mother, in a letter to Julia and Kate Palmer, 3 Nov. 1871, quoted in Dorment and MacDonald, p.122). He immediately rushed to his studio and painted a sunset ('Variations in Violet and Green', private collection) and this moonlit scene at one sitting. The picture is painted on panel, primed with dark grey paint, over which Whistler applied thin layers of pigment in order to create a contrasting sense of luminosity.

The view is from Battersea looking across to Chelsea, and it is possible to make out features on the horizon, such as the tower of Chelsea Old Church on the right. In the foreground, a low barge and the figure of a fisherman are indicated with the minimum of detail, and the influence of Japanese art is evident in the restricted palette, the economy of line and the characteristic butterfly signature. This picture was exhibited, along with its pair, at the Dudley Gallery in November 1871. The critic for The Times revealed a rare appreciation of Whistler's Nocturnes, describing them as follows: 'They are illustrations of the theory … that painting is so closely akin to music that the colours of the one may and should be used, like the ordered sounds of the other; that painting should not aim at expressing dramatic emotions, depicting incidents of history or recording facts of nature, but should be content with moulding our moods and stirring our imaginations, by subtle combinations of colour, through which all that painting has to say to us can be said, and beyond which painting has no valuable or true speech whatever' ('The Times', 14 November 1871). Further reading: Richard Dorment and Margaret F.

MacDonald, 'James McNeill Whistler', exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1994, pp.122–123, no.46, reproduced in colour p.123. Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone (eds), 'The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones & Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860–1910', exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.206–207 no.79, reproduced in colour p.207. Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer with the assistance of Hamish Miles, 'The Paintings of James MacNeill Whistler', New Haven and London, 1980, no. 103, reproduced in colour plate 106.

Frances Fowle December 2000 More information 10 Artworks By Whistler You Should Know 10 Artworks By Whistler You Should Know Updated: 13 April 2016 American -born painter James Abbot McNeil Whistler – celebrated for his distinctive portraiture and nocturnal scenes of London – settled in England in the late 1850s, where he became a leading figure in the late-19th Century British aesthetic movement, known for its motto ‘art for art’s sake’. We take a tour of Whistler’s oeuvre, from the oft parodied ‘Whistler’s Mother’ to his controversial ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’. Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 Not only is ‘ Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 ‘ (known more popularly by its moniker ‘Whistler’s Mother‘) one of the artist’s best known works, it is also one of the art world’s most iconic works.

Painted in London in 1871, the work was considered radical at the time of its creation for its unsentimental portrayal of the artist’s mother, Anna McNeil Whistler. Whistler however, insisted that the identity of his sitter was secondary to the painting’s aesthetic arrangement of shape and color. An oft-parodied work, the painting has been spoofed in popular culture from The Simpsons to a 1987 Nike advertisement . Whistler, Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, 144.3 x 162.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, 1871 | © Whoisthemother/WikiCommons Nocturne: Blue and Silver – Chelsea ‘ Nocturne: Blue and Silver – Chelsea ‘ is the very first of Whistler’s Nocturnes, a term the artist adopted to de-emphasize a painting’s narrative and give prominence to its arrangement of form, line and color. The painting is a scene of Chelsea, London from across the Thames at Battersea.

Whistler’s appreciation for Japanese art is clear in the painting’s uncomplicated composition, sparing use of color, and the use of his trademark butterfly signature – a monogram the artist included as a compositional element in his paintings rather than just a hallmark and would elaborate on over the course of his career. Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Silver – Chelsea, 50.2 x 60.8 cm, Tate Britain, 1871 | © DcoetzeeBot/WikiCommons Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl One of Whistler’s first major works, ‘ Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl ‘ was amongst the works famously rejected from the Paris Salon in 1863 and exhibited at the Salon des Refusés – a show which attracted considerable controversy and saw Whistler’s artwork both mocked by the public, yet admired by his French peers including artist Édouard Manet and poet Charles Baudelaire.

Featuring the artist’s long-term mistress Joanna Hiffernan as model, the painting was originally titled just ‘The White Girl’, but received its current name when art critic Paul Mantz called it a ‘symphony in white’ – a musical allegory that Whistler would utilize in later ‘arrangements’, ‘nocturnes’ and ‘harmonies’. Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl, 213 x 107.9 cm, National Gallery of Art, 1862 | © File Upload Bot (Cobalty)/WikiCommons Harmony in Blue and Silver: Trouville Painted in 1865 while Whistler was working alongside French artist Gustave Courbet, ‘ Harmony in Blue and Silver: Trouville ‘ – which bears resemblance to Courbet’s 1854 painting ‘ Les bords de la mer à Palavas ‘ and features the figure of Courbet himself – represents a significant turning point in his oeuvre, a time during which he moved more towards his purely aesthetic works and characteristically spare use of color.

The painting currently hangs in Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; Whistler, apparently quite attached to the painting, was reluctant to relinquish the work to Mrs. Gardner until, accompanied by a friend, the patron eventually insisted, ‘That’s my picture… you’ve said many times I could have it, Mr. Whistler, and now I’m going to take it’. Whistler, Harmony in Blue and Silver: Trouville, 49.5 x 75.5 cm, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1865 | © File Upload Bot (Eloquence)/WikiCommons Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket ‘ Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket ‘ is one of several scenes Whistler painted of Cremorne Gardens, a former popular pleasure garden in Chelsea, London. Quite possibly one of Whistler’s most controversial works, English art critic John Ruskin accused the artist’s pricing of the painting as a ‘coxcomb asking two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face’, after the work was first exhibited at London’s Grosvenor Gallery in 1877.

The following year, Whistler would sue the critic for libel in an infamous trial in which the artist won, but was awarded a paltry farthing in nominal damages. Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold, The Falling Rocket, 60.2 x 46.7 cm, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1875 | © Howcheng/WikiCommons Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room Wealthy Liverpudlian industrialist and frequent patron of Whistler, Frederick Richards Leyland, commissioned the painter to decorate the dining room of his London home – which Leyland had originally hired British architect Thomas Jeckyll to design, in order to showcase his collection of Chinese porcelain. The resulting ‘ Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room ‘ famously led to the end of Whistler and Leyland’s relationship, when Whistler apparently took his artistic license a little too far and painted over costly antique Dutch leather with his designs.

Dismantled in 1904 and moved to American industrialist and art collector Charles Lang Freer’s Detroit home, Whistler’s Japanese inspired interior is today installed at the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Whistler, Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room, 412.6 x 613.4 x 1026.2 cm, Freer Gallery of Art, 1876-77 | © Mijotoba/WikiCommons The Princess from the Land of Porcelain Originally given pride of place above the fireplace of commissioner and British shipping magnate Frederick Richards Leyland’s Whistler-painted dining room, ‘ The Princess from the Land of Porcelain ‘ today hangs in a faithful reproduction of The Peacock Room in Washington DC’s Freer Gallery of Art. Featuring Christine Spartali, a noted Anglo-Greek beauty of the 1860s, the painting’s composition – a Western women fitted out in Japanese attire and surrounded by Oriental props – is testament to the influence of both Japanese art and Chinoiserie – an 18th century European interpretation of Eastern art – in Whistler’s works.

Whistler, The Princess from the Land of Porcelain, 201.5 x 116.1 cm, Freer Gallery of Art, 1863-65 | © Dcoetzee/WikiCommons Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge Another of Whistler’s controversial paintings, ‘ Nocturne: Blue and Gold–Old Battersea Bridge ‘ was – alongside ‘Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket’ – one of the works produced as evidence during the infamous 1878 Whistler-Ruskin libel trial. During the trial, the presiding judge, Baron Huddleston, asked of Whistler, ‘Which part of the picture is the bridge?’ much to the amusement of the court. Irish writer Oscar Wilde denounced the work during its 1877 exhibition as ‘worth looking at for about as long as one looks at a real rocket, that is, for somewhat less than a quarter of a minute’. Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge, 68.3 x 51.2 cm, Tate Collection, c.

1872-75 | © File Upload Bot (Eloquence)/WikiCommons At the Piano Created between 1858 and 1859, ‘ At the Piano ‘ was Whistler’s first major oil painting and is widely regarded as the artist’s first masterpiece. First exhibited in 1860 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the work features Whistler’s half-sister, Deborah Delano Haden playing piano and her daughter, Annie Harriet Haden, listening. The painting found a buyer in Scottish artist John Phillip, but today, the painting is part of the permanent collection at Cincinnati, Ohio’s Taft Museum of Arts. Whistler, At the Piano, 67 x 91.6 cm, Taft Museum of Art, 1858-59 | © File Upload Bot (Magnus Manske)/WikiCommons Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl A later ‘symphony’ of Whistler’s, ‘ Symphony in White, No.

2: The Little White Girl ‘ was first shown at a 1865 exhibition at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, and again features the artist’s mistress Joanna Hiffernan as model. This time, Hiffernan poses in sad contemplation, leading critics to draw comparisons with Spanish painter Diego Velázquez’s mid-17th century work, ‘ The Rokeby Venus ‘. English poet Algernon Charles Swinburne felt compelled to pen a ballad, ‘ Before the Mirror ‘, after viewing the painting, while a third Whistler ‘ Symphony in White ‘ resides at Birmingham, England’s Barber Institute of Fine Arts. James Whistler: American Impressionist Painter, Aesthetic Movement Private Collection. Biography A major figure in Victorian art , the small, egotistical and quarrelsome, Whistler was associated with the Aesthetic Movement, believing in creating art for art's sake.

Strongly influenced by Edouard Manet and Diego Velazquez , he strove to express the harmony and beauty of music through visual means, and is best remembered for his Impressionist-style landscape painting - given musical names such as 'arrangements', 'harmonies' and 'nocturnes', such as Nocturne in Blue And Silver - Chelsea (1871, Tate Collection, London) and Nocturne in Black and Gold: Falling Rocket (1875, Detroit Institute of Arts). Whistler was also a talented portraitist, his most famous work of portrait art is Portrait of the Artist's Mother (Arrangement in Grey and Black No 1) (1871). In addition, he was one of the great masters of etching - comparable even with Rembrandt - and a talented decorative artist. Born in America, educated in Russia, he spent most of his adult life in Britain. Nocturne in Black and Gold, the Falling Rocket (1875) see: Best Portrait Artists .

Early Life and Artistic Training Born in 1834 in Massachusetts, Whistler's father George Washington Whistler was an engineer and his mother Anna Matilda, a strict and devout housewife. In 1843 the family moved to St Petersburg, where George was employed to work on the railways. The young Whistler was prone to moody spells and fits of temper and his mother noticed the only thing that would calm the child was drawing . He showed an early interest in art, so that in 1845, at the age of 11, he enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg. It was here that he met the well known Scottish artist Sir William Allan who was to remark to Whistler's mother that your 'your little boy has uncommon genius'. In 1847 Whistler's mother moved the family temporarily to London, while her husband remained in Russia. Young Whistler continued to study art, attending exhibitions and lectures on painting and photography. He read art books and it became clear that he had found his chosen career. At the age of 15, he wrote to his father to tell him of his intending career with the hope he would not object.

His father however died of cholera shortly after. The family returned to the hometown of his mother in Connecticut. Money was short and times were difficult. Shortly after, Whistler was sent to West Point Academy, where his father had once taught drawing and other relatives had attended. It was because of this, and despite Whistler's bad eyesight and not particularly robust health, that he was admitted. He remained for three years but failed his final exams. It appears he was more interested in drawing caricature than studying the art of warfare. He did however learn the skill of drafting maps, which resulted in his first job: to draft the entire US coast for military purposes. After it was discovered that he was more fond of drawing mermaids than seacoasts, he was transferred to the printmaking department. He only lasted in this position a few months but it proved valuable training in etching. Paris Whistler moved to Paris in 1855, rented a studio in the Latin Quarter and took readily to the bohemian lifestyle of an artist. He studied at the Ecole Imperiale and the atelier of Charles Gabriel.

Gabriel was a great advocate of Ingres - the doyen of academic art - and was to impress the importance of line over colour and that black was the fundamental colour of tonal harmony. Impressionist painters would turn this theory on its ear less than 20 years later, when they rejected the use of brown and black as unnatural on a palette. Meantime, Whistler spent a lot of time copying Old Master works at the Louvre and then selling them to tourists to earn money. The subtleties of Velazquez's paintings in the Louvre and the flattened forms of Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints - part of the Japonism craze - were to become important influences on his developing style. Early Impressionist-Style Paintings Whistler's first exhibited painting was La Mere Gerard (1858), which received some praise. He moved to London in 1859 and painted his next work, At the Piano, the same year. It was a painting of his niece and her mother and clearly displayed a promising talent. The painting is unsentimental and uses black and white quite effectively to contrast mother and daughter. It was displayed at the Royal Academy the following year.

A year later he produced a set of etchings of the Thames, which displayed traces of early Impressionism , and introduced his technique of tonal harmony, limiting his palette to certain colours. (See also: Impressionism: Early History .) After returning to Paris for a brief period, Whistler produced one of his first famous works - Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl (1862) now at The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. The portrait is of his mistress and manager Joanna Hiffernan. Critics saw the girl in a white dress, holding a fading flower as an elegy for lost innocence. Whistler claims it was simply a study in white. Some even considered it a study in the Pre-Raphaelite manner. The work was rejected by the official Salon but accepted by the Salon des Refuses in 1863.

(See also: Best Impressionist Paintings .) Note: to compare Monet's way of capturing light and use of colour, see: Characteristics of Impressionist Painting 1870-1910.) Nocturnes In 1866 Whistler visited Chile, an unusual journey to make at the time, one the artist declared he did for political reasons. Whatever the reason, as a result of his trip, he returned with several paintings which he called moonlights, but later renamed to nocturnes. The works were delicate night scenes of a harbour bathed in blues and light greens. Over the next decade or so, he continued to paint many more nocturnes, including Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge (c.18725) and Falling rocket: Nocturne in Black and Gold (1875). These nocturnes - most of them masterpieces of tonality - are Whistler's greatest contribution to modern art .

For another modern painter who saw a connection between music and painting, see the abstract artist Frank Kupka (1871-1957), from the Czech Republic who was in Paris at the same time as Whistler. His changing style confused his contemporaries. On the unveiling of his Falling Rocket nocturne - a painting in which the subject matter dissolves almost entirely into a complex interplay of colour and form - it was criticised heavily by the English critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) who accused the artist of flinging "a pot of paint in the public's face". Whistler sued for libel and resulting court case has become quite famous. Whistler's wit and responses have gone down in history. Asked how long it had taken him to 'knock off' the painting, he replied 'two days'. He was then asked if it was for 2 days he charged 200 guineas. He replied: 'No. I ask it for the knowledge of a lifetime'. Whistler won the case, but the legal costs left him bankrupt. Portraits Whistler was not as successful a portraitist as his contemporary American artist, John Singer Sargent .

The main reason for this was that he refused to flatter his sitter. His most famous portrait is that of his mother, painted in 1862. According to a letter at the time, a famous sitter failed to appear so he turned to his mother and offered to do her portrait instead. Initially she was standing, but this became too tiring, so she sat instead. The resulting pose, side view, hands neatly on nap is now an iconic image of American art and one of the most striking portraits of the 19th century . The limited use of colour gives the painting a harmony and quiet dignity. Right from the start the painting has evoked mixed reactions from ridicule to reverence. Gradually over time it has been accepted as a universal icon of motherhood and in 1934 the US issued a postage stamp with a reproduction of the work. Whistler's other greatest portrait paintings include Thomas Carlyle, historian (1873), Cicely Alexander, daughter of a London banker (1873), Lady Meux, socialite (1882) and F.R. and Elinor Leyland.

The Leylands later commissioned the artist to produce a now-famous mural painting in their house, the Peacock Room. His finished work anticipated a great deal of the 1890s Art Nouveau designs and was much admired by Aubrey Beardsley . Returns to Paris In 1892, after a luke-warm reception for a solo-exhibition in London, featuring mostly nocturnes, Whistler moved to Paris with his new wife Trixie Godwin (a former pupil). He set himself up in a large studio and made friends with other well-known modern artists including Monet and Toulouse-Lautrec and sculptors such as Auguste Rodin . In the final seven years of his life, Whistler's style became more and more minimalist. He died in 1903. Reputation and Legacy After his death, Whistler's sensitive paintings found a more appreciative audience. He was a pioneer of simplification, clearing out Victorian clutter, expounding the use of simple, plain colours. He left behind over 500 paintings, as well as countless watercolours , etchings, pastel drawings , and lithographs .

During his lifetime he influenced a generation of artists in the Realism and Symbolism schools, including the Norwegian landscape artist P.S. Kroyer (1851-1909), and the Danish interiors painter Vilhelm Hammershoi (1864-1916). He also had a huge impact on the Glasgow School of Painting and Charles Rennie Mackintosh. In some ways, Whistler's discreet and subtle oil painting was the complete antithesis of his voluble, ostentatious personality. Except it was founded on a radical doctrine: that art should exist for its own sake rather than to propagate a moral or social idea. "Art should be independent of all claptrap - should stand alone, and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear." He remains one of the finest painters of the modern era and a major figure in expatriate American art of the second half of the 19th century. Greatest Paintings Paintings by James Abbott McNeill Whistler can be seen in many of the best art museums throughout the world. Among them are the following key works: - Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl (1862) National Gallery, Washington DC.

- Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl (1864) Tate Collection, London. - Crepuscule in Flesh Colour and Green: Valparaiso (1866), Tate Gallery, London. - Harmony in Flesh Colour and Red (1869), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. - Portrait of the Artist's Mother (1871) Musee d'Orsay, Paris. - Nocturne in Blue And Silver - Chelsea (1871) Tate Collection, London. - Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge (1874) Tate Collection, London. - Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander (1874) Tate Collection, London. - Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket: (1875) Detroit Institute of Arts. - Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room (1877) Freer Gallery, Washington DC. - Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room (1877), Freer Gallery, Washington DC.

- Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux (1882) Frick Collection, New York.  For more biographies of American artists, see: Famous Painters .  For more about American Impressionists, see: Homepage . ENCYCLOPEDIA OF VISUAL ARTISTS WebMuseum: Whistler, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, James Abbott McNeill (1834-1903). American-born painter and graphic artist, active mainly in England. James Abbott McNeill Whistler was born in in 1834 in Lowell, Massachusetts, the third son of West Point graduate and civil engineer Major George Washington Whistler, and his second wife Anna Matilda McNeill. After brief stays in Stonington, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts, the Whistlers moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, where the Major served as an civil engineer for the construction of a railroad line to Moscow. James Abbott was aged nine when his family moved to Russia, and he spent several of his childhood years there, studying drawing at the Imperial Academy of Science. He soon became an inveterate traveller.

In 1848 he went to live with his sister and her husband in London, and after his father's death the following year the family returned to the United States and settled in Pomfret, Connecticut. Whistler enrolled in the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1851, where he excelled in Robert W. Weir's drawing class. He was dismissed from the academy in 1854 for "deficiency in chemistry", and after brief periods working for the Winans Locomotive Works in Baltimore, and the drawings division of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (he learnt etching as a US navy cartographer), resolved to become an artist and moved to Europe permanently in 1855. Whistler settled in Paris first, where he studied at the Ecole Impï¿½riale et Spï¿½ciale de Dessin, before entering the Acadï¿½mie Gleyre. He made copies in the Louvre, acquired a lasting admiration for Velï¿½zquez , and became a devotee of the cult of the Japanese print and oriental art and decoration in general.

Through his friend Fantin-Latour he met Courbet , whose Realism inspired much of his early work. The circles in which he moved can be gauged from Fantin-Latour's Homage to Delacroix , in which Whistler is portrayed alongside Baudelaire, Manet , and others. He quickly associated himself with avant garde artists, and was influenced by Courbet's realism, as well as the seventeenth century Dutch and Spanish schools. With Henri Fantin-Latour and Alphonse Legros , he founded the Sociï¿½tï¿½ des Trois. After Whistler's At The Piano (Taft Museum, Cincinnati) was rejected at the Salon of 1859 he moved to London, but often returned to France. At the Piano was well received at the Royal Academy exhibition in 1860 and he soon made a name for himself, not just because of his talent, but also on account of his flamboyant personality. He was famous for his wit and dandyism, and loved controversy. His life-style was lavish and he was often in debt. He began work on a series of etchings.

There Whistler was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, and he befriended Dante Gabriel Rossetti . Oscar Wilde was also among his famous friends. At The Piano 1858-59; Oil on canvas, 67 x 91.6 cm; The Taft Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio Whistler greatly admired Dutch masters such as Jan Steen, Rembrandt and Ruysdael. In 1858 he visited Holland to view the Nightwatch. Indeed, he became a frequent traveller to the Netherlands, visiting The Hague, Dordrecht and Domburg and producing numerous etchings of one of his favorite cities: Amsterdam. He achieved international notoriety when Symphony No. 1, The White Girl was rejected at both the Royal Academy and the Salon, but was a major attraction at the famous Salon des Refusï¿½s in 1863. Thereafter Courbet's influence waned, and Orientalism--and to a lesser extent classicism--became increasingly pronounced elements in his work.

Whistler maintained close ties with France during the London years, and painted at Trouville with Courbet, Daubigny, and Monet in 1865. Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl 1862; Oil on canvas, 214.6 x 108 cm; National Gallery of Art, Washington In 1866 he went to South America, where he painted seascapes in Valparaiso, Chile. After returning to Europe he commenced work on a series of monumental figure compositions for called the Six Projects (Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), that reflect the influence of the English artist Albert Moore. In 1869 Whistler began to sign his paintings with a butterfly monogram composed of his initials. In 1872 he painted his well-known Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: Portrait of the Artist's Mother , that was later acquired by the French government.

Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother 1871; Oil on canvas, 144.3 x 162.5 cm; Musï¿½e d'Orsay, Paris During the early 1870s he painted his famous "Nocturne" series, views of the Thames. Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Chelsea 1871; Oil on wood, 50.2 x 60.8 cm; Tate Gallery, London Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Cremorne Lights 1872; Oil on canvas, 50.2 x 74.3 cm; Tate Gallery, London Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge 1872-77; Oil on canvas, 68.3 x 51.2 cm; Tate Gallery, London Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge Detail Whistler's art is in many respects the opposite to his often aggressive personality, being discreet and subtle, but the creed that lay behind it was radical.

He believed that painting should exist for its own sake, not to convey literary or moral ideas, and he often gave his pictures musical titles to suggest an analogy with the abstract art of music: `Art should be independent of all claptrap-- should stand alone, and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism, and the like. All these have no kind of concern with it, and that is why I insist on calling my works "arrangements" and "harmonies".' He was a laborious and self-critical worker, but this is belied by the flawless harmonies of tone and color he created in his paintings, which are mainly portraits and landscapes, particularly scenes of the Thames. No less original was his work as a decorative artist, notably in the Peacock Room (1876-77) for the London home of the Liverpool shipping magnate Frederick Leyland (now reconstructed in the Freer Gallery, Washington), where attenuated decorative patterning anticipated much in the Art Nouveau style of the 1890s.

Whistler's Peacock Room , or Harmony in Blue and Gold (1876-1877, Freer Gallery of Art), done for Leyland, exerted a strong influence on the Aesthetic movement's interior design. Peacock Room central shutter; 1876-77; 369.5 x 141 cm; Freer Gallery, Washington Fighting Peacocks South panel of Peacock Room; 180.3 x 472.5 cm; Freer Gallery, Washington Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket 1875; Oil on wood, 60.3 x 46.6 cm; Detroit Institute of Arts In 1877 the critic John Ruskin denounced Whistler's Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (1875; Detroit Institute of Arts), accusing him of "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face", and Whistler sued him for libel the following year. He won the action, but the awarding of only a farthing's damages with no costs was in effect a justification for Ruskin.

Potential patrons were repelled by the negative publicity surrounding the case, and the expense of the trial led to Whistler's bankruptcy in 1879. His house was sold and he proceeded to Italy with a commission from the Fine Arts Society to make twelve etchings of Venice. He spent a year in Venice (1879-80), concentrating on the etchings-- among the masterpieces of 19th-century graphic art-- that helped to restore his fortunes when he returned to London. After returning to England in 1880 he painted a wide variety of subjects, continued with his interest in the graphic arts, and promulgated his aesthetic theories in print and in the Ten O'Clock lecture (1885); his polemical The Gentle Art of Making Enemies was published in 1890. In 1886 he was elected president of the Society of British Artists, but despite some successes his revolutionary ideas ran afoul of the conservative members, and he was voted out of office within two years. Arrangement in Grey and Black, No.

2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle 1872-73; Oil on canvas, 171.1 x 143.5 cm; Glasgow Museum and Art Gallery During the late 1880s and 1890s Whistler achieved recognition as an artist of international stature. His paintings were acquired by public collections, he received awards at exhibitions, and he was elected to such prestigious professional associations as the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. His portrait of Thomas Carlyle was bought by the Corporation of Glasgow in 1891 for 1,000 guineas and soon afterwards his most famous work, Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother (1871), was bought by the French state (it is now in the Musï¿½e d'Orsay, Paris) and he was made a member of the Lï¿½gion d'Honneur. In 1898 he was elected president of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. He made a happy marriage in 1888 to Beatrix Godwin, widow of the architect E.W.

Godwin, with whom Whistler had collaborated, but she died only eight years later. He withdrew from an active social life around the time his wife Beatrice Godwin died of cancer in 1896. In 1903, the year of his death, a memorial exhibition was held in Boston; the following year similar retrospectives were held by the International Society in London, and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Whistler's paintings are related to Impressionism (although he was more interested in evoking a mood than in accurately depicting the effects of light), to Symbolism, and to Aestheticism, and he played a central role in the modern movement in England. His aesthetic creed was explained in his Ten O'Clock Lecture (1885) and this, and much else on art and society, was republished in The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (1890).

The Lime-burner 1859; Etching and drypoint printed in black ink on cream laid paper with watermark of bricked arch in shield surrounded by stylized foliage, Plate: 25.1 x 17.6 cm Wapping 1861-64; Oil on canvas, 71.1 x 101.6 cm; National Gallery of Art, Washington Wapping Detail; 1861-64; Oil on canvas, 71.1 x 101.6 cm; National Gallery of Art, Washington Purple and Rose: The Lange Leizen of the Six Marks 1864; Oil on canvas, 92 x 61.5 cm; Philadelphia Museum of Art Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl 1864; Oil on canvas, 76.5 x 51.1 cm; Tate Gallery, London Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander 1872-74; Oil on canvas, 190.2 x 97.8 cm; Tate Gallery, London Cremorne Gardens, No.

2 A FLIGHT OF WHISTLER BUTTERFLIES | James McNeill Whistler and his Art James McNeill Whistler and his Art Posted on April 10, 2014 by mfmmacdonald In 1869, Whistler made a large and elaborate drawing of a nude figure, which was intended to be transferred to canvas, a decorative scheme that was never completed. However, the drawing or cartoon, is now in the Freer Gallery of Art, and it bore, instead of Whistler’s signature, a monogram of his initials ‘JW’ in the form of a butterfly. The ‘J’ was the body, and the ‘W’ the wings. Venus, black crayon and white chalk on brown paper, 119.4 x 61.4 cms, Freer Gallery of Art, F1904.66a-b This precise butterfly with its angular wings is visible on a square cartouche at lower right. This monogram evolved over the years into the butterfly that became Whistler’s mark, as distinctive as a signature.

Within a couple of years he was applying it to his paintings, including the famous portrait of his mother, and views of the Thames. In 1871, two paintings of the Thames were exhibited at the Dudley Gallery in London (cat. nos. 225 and 265), Variations in Violet and Green (now in the Musée d’Orsay) and ‘Harmony in Blue-green’ (which was later renamed Nocturne: Blue and Silver – Chelsea and is now in the Tate. Whistler was away in Liverpool, leaving his faithful followers, Walter and Henry Greaves, to check on the paintings. ‘I am very glad you and Harry have been to the Dudley – and that the two “harmonies” look swell among the crowd’, he wrote to Walter, adding, ‘Have they managed to fit in the little gold flat you know that Clay took down to the Gallery and that they wouldn’t let him put in the frame, but fixed it in themselves? Does it look all right?

They have not taken off too much of the butterfly have they?’ Nocturne: Blue and Silver – Chelsea (Tate) in the Tretyakow Gallery: (I took this snap while the show ‘Whistler in Russia’ was being hung). The butterfly is on the frame at lower right. At the Dulwich Gallery, the pictures were reviewed favourably by the resident art critic of The Times, Tom Taylor on 14 November 1871: ‘’The colour, consistently with the theory of the painter, is carried out into the frames by means of delicate diaperings and ripplings of faint greens and moony blues on their gold and the Japanese influence in which the painter delights is carried even to the introduction of the coloured cartouche, which on Japanese screens bears the address of the painter or seller.’ It is possible this refers to the rather cramped butterfly painted on the flat between the reeded surfaces of the picture frame. The other picture in the Dudley exhibition of 1871 was also signed with a butterfly, quite a small one, and presumably both the frame design and the butterfly were as Whistler wanted them.

Variations in Violet and Green is signed with a butterfly and dated ‘71’ on the right, and signed with a butterfly on the frame at upper left. In May 2014, Variations in Violet and Green will be reunited for the first time in a century with its companion piece, Variations in Pink and Grey: Chelsea in the exhibition An American in London: Whistler and the Thames at the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC. Variations in Pink and Grey: Chelsea Freer Gallery of Art: F1902.249a-b There is a little red and gold butterfly on the frame at left, and a small blue butterfly on a cartouche (which could be interpreted as a signboard) in the painting itself, also at left. Both are variations on Whistler’s original butterfly. The butterfly was to metamorphose further over the next 30 years, adding and losing veins on the wings, antennae, and occasionally, a sting! You could say that it became the symbol for Whistler himself, a very serious butterfly. REFERENCE: The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler, 1855-1903, edited by Margaret F.

MacDonald, Patricia de Montfort and Nigel Thorp; including The Correspondence of Anna McNeill Whistler, 1855-1880, edited by Georgia Toutziari. On-line edition, University of Glasgow.

Question: Who, in 1871, painted the picture Nocturne; Blue and Silver - Chelsea now in the Tate?
Answer: James Whistler