The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (511 page)

(1747–1801).
English painter. He first practised in London as a painter of small full-length portraits and
conversation pieces
in the manner of
Zoffany
. After working in Dublin in 1779–83 he returned to London and began to specialize in scenes of rural and domestic life, imparting a certain 18th-cent. elegance to a genre in which
Hogarth
had excelled, and exploiting a facility for popular moral sentiment. Engravings of his
Cries of London
(1795), showing street-vendors, milkmaids, and so on had a great sale and it is by these that he is generally remembered. The originals are now dispersed; examples are at Upton House (National Trust) and in the Geffrye Museum, London.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1834–1903)
. American-born painter and graphic artist, active mainly in England. He spent several of his childhood years in Russia (where his father had gone to work as a civil engineer) and was an inveterate traveller. His training as an artist began indirectly when, after his discharge from West Point Military Academy for ‘deficiency in chemistry’, he learnt etching as a US navy cartographer. In 1855 he moved to Paris, where he studied intermittently under
Gleyre
, made copies in the
Louvre
, acquired a lasting admiration for
Velázquez
, and became a devotee of the cult of the Japanese print (see
UKIYO-E
) 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 settled in London in 1859, but often returned to France. His
At the Piano
(Taft Mus., Cincinnati, 1859) 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 lifestyle was lavish and he was often in debt. Dante Gabriel
Rossetti
and Oscar Wilde were among his famous friends.
Whistler's art is in many respects the opposite to his ostentatious 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 colour 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 (1876–7) for the London home of the Liverpool shipping magnate Frederick Leyland (now reconstructed in the Freer Gal., Washington), where attenuated decorative patterning anticipated much in the
Art Nouveau
style of the 1890s.
In 1877
Ruskin
denounced Whistler's
Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket
(Detroit Institute of Arts), accusing him of ‘flinging a pot of paint in the public's face’, and Whistler sued him for libel. He won the action, but the awarding of only a farthing's damages with no costs was in effect a justification for Ruskin, and the expense of the trial led to Whistler's bankruptcy in 1879. His house was sold and he spent a year in Venice (1879–80), concentrating on the etchings—among the masterpieces of 19th-cent. graphic art—that helped to restore his fortunes when he returned to London. 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. In his fifties Whistler began to achieve honours and substantial success. 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 Musée d'Orsay, Paris) and he was made a member of the Legion of Honour.
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 major role in introducing modern ideas to British art. Those who were most immediately influenced by him included his pupils Walter Greaves (1849–1930), Gwen
John
, the Australian-born Mortimer Menpes (1860–1938), and W. R.
Sickert
. 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).

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(1905–44).
English painter, graphic artist, and stage designer. He is best known for his decorations in a light and fanciful style evocative of the 18th cent., notably the series of murals
In Pursuit of Rare Meats
(1926–7) in the restaurant of the Tate Gallery. He also did numerous book illustrations and much work for the stage, including ballet and opera. He was killed in action in the Second World War. His brother
Laurence Whistler
(1912– ), a writer and glass engraver, has published several books on him.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Whiteread , Rachel
.

See
TURNER PRIZE
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search