Lot 9
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Massachusetts / England, France, (1834 - 1903)
The Pool, Thames Set etching #7
etching, likely the fourth state of four
Signed Whistler and dated 1859 in the plate lower left. Thos. Agnew & Sons LTD, London label verso.
Tag verso "James McNeill Whistler, The Pool, Etching. K. 43/IV."
Biography from Spanierman Gallery: James McNeill Whistler, whose radical art and leadership in the aesthetic movement had profound impact on both American and European artists working in the late nineteenth century, was one of the most original and influential artists of his time. Known for his brilliant and devastating wit, Whistler was an extremely controversial figure who at times alienated his colleagues and the public at large. However, his tremendous contribution to his era was acknowledged by all. In 1907, the critic Charles Caffin wrote: "He did better than attract a few followers and imitators; he influenced the whole world of art. Consciously or unconsciously, his presence is felt in countless studios; his genius permeates modern artistic thought."
Whistler spent his early years in New England, living in Lowell and Springfield, Massachusetts. At age nine, he moved with his family to Russia when his father received an appointment to build railroads from the czar of Russia. Whistler received his first art instruction in Saint Petersburg, attending drawing classes at the Imperial Academy of Science. In 1848, he joined his half-sister Deborah in London, following her marriage to the English doctor Seymour Haden who later became well known as an etcher. A year later, after the death of his father, Whistler returned to America and entered the United States Military Academy at West Point. There he ranked first in the drawing class taught by Robert W. Weir. However, his poor grades in chemistry led to dismissal from the academy in 1854. He worked for a brief time at the Winans Locomotive Works in Baltimore and then for the drawings division of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, where he received his first training in etching.
Deciding to become an artist, Whistler moved to Europe in 1855. He settled in Paris and took up a bohemian life, associating with a group of young English artists and becoming close friends with French painters Henri Fantin-Latour and Alphonse Legros. He studied briefly at the Ecole Imperiale et Speciale de Dessin and the following year continued his studies with Charles Gleyre, at his Paris atelier. Dutch and Spanish art of the seventeenth century were of great interest to Whistler during the late 1850s, however, the French Realist painter Gustave Courbet was the most significant influence on his early career.
After his painting At the Piano (Taft Museum, Cincinnati) was rejected by the Salon in 1859, Whistler moved to England. In London, he became acquainted with the English Pre-Raphaelites, especially Dante Gabriel Rossetti with whom he shared a taste for Japanese prints and Greek art and design. Whistler gradually adopted elements of oriental composition and spatial design, incorporating these in particular in his views of London at night. By 1872, Whistler had begun to use musical terms as titles for paintings and to formulate his own version of aestheticism. Whistler's highly abstract works were often the subject of attack, and it was upon seeing Whistler's work at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877 that John Ruskin made the disparaging comments that resulted in Whistler's bringing suit for libel in 1878. After the trial, the artist briefly visited Venice where he became part of an international group of artists that included the American painter Frank Duveneck and his students.
In the 1880s and '90s, Whistler continued to paint landscapes and seascapes capturing ephemeral effects and portrait-arrangements combining realistic portrayals of often elegant figures and delicate color harmonies. He also continued his involvement with printmaking, creating etchings and lithographs. He settled in Paris in 1892, opening the Académie Carmen there in 1898. In the last decades of the nineteenth century, Whistler's art gained international recognition. A large exhibition of his paintings was held in New York in 1889, and in the same year he was awarded medals in Munich, Paris, and Amsterdam.
Whistler's works are in numerous private and public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Tate Gallery, London; the Louvre, Paris; the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D,C.; the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts; the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Lisa N. Peters
© The essay herein is the property of Spanierman Gallery, LLC and is copyrighted by Spanierman Gallery, LLC, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from Spanierman Gallery, LLC, nor shown or communicated to anyone without due credit being given to Spanierman Gallery, LLC.
- Dimensions: 5 3/8"H x 8 3/8"W (plate), 13 1/8"H x 15 7/8"W (frame)
- Medium: etching, likely the fourth state of four
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