James Mcneill whistler is a well-known Impressionist painter, born in Massachusetts, usa, who went to Paris at the age of 21 with the ambition to become an artist, and later established a career in London, pursuing aestheticism, that is, "art for art's sake".
Currently, the exhibition "Whistler and Nature" is on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, UK. Exhibiting about 90 paintings, drawings, and prints, the exhibition attempts to present how his family was involved in industry in the early 19th century, his perception of observational painting, and the evolution of artistic styles. However, in the opinion of Laura Cumming, a commentator for the Guardian, the comparison of Whistler's work with nature makes the theme of the exhibition seem even more anomalous.
Whistler
American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) did not love the rampant chaos of nature. He hated the kind of landscapes of nature that constantly appear without regard to harmony, structural or aesthetic constraints. All of this had to be imposed by an artist like himself. "Nature is rarely right," is Whistler's typical utterance, "and to some extent it can even be said that nature is usually wrong." ”
Whistler, Blue and Gold Nocturne: Water on the Waters of Southampton, 1872, (non-nocturne works in this exhibition)
Of course, if it is a scene that is deeply obscured by a kind of mist or moonlight, then nature will appear in Whistler's art. After all, each of Whistler's "nocturne" works is an outdoor scene, showing the River Thames and other rivers dissolved in mist. The collection of the Nocturne series must have been spectacular (unfortunately, there is only one in this exhibition). At the same time, the exhibition features black-and-white scenes of Venice that he depicts, floating on a mysterious lagoon. Whistler and Water, that's sure to be a wonderful exhibition. But instead, the fairly 90 Whistler works in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge mock the exhibition's title by largely detracting its subject matter away from the subject of nature.
Two nude models lie on a bed in the studio, one holding a Japanese fan in his hand and the other in a transparent robe with his back to the decorative balcony. Such an oil painting study was repeated several times. In a series of images, a slender girl stands in front of her, dressed in an ancient Greek robe, and the light source lights up the ripples of the cloth. This is the focus of the picture, the girl does not show up.
Whistler works
In 1859, at 62 Sloane Street, Whistler's brother-in-law sat in front of a light reading. In Paris, where Whistler lived for many years, pedestrians on the road were depicted by him as ant-sized figures, moving in front of the windows of his apartment at dusk. In these paintings, the appearance of one or two trees may be presented, and sometimes the bushes are presented, but in general, nature is blank in the picture space. The river has a powerful abstract power in his art, but the riverbank does not, but spreads and is lost in whistler's fog.
Whistler, The Bathing Posts, Brittany, 1893
The "nocturne" of the 1870s seems to have been foretold. In the decade before that, on Trauvier Beach, Whistler was preoccupied with a set of river paintings. A translucent brushsweep brush against the canvas, which is air, showing that the wind blows the sand and the ocean. It was a manifesto—the brushstrokes were more beautiful than the scenes themselves. Later, in "The Bathing Posts, Brittany", painted in 1893, he gracefully surveyed the sea in terms of composition and found balance in the wide blue bands.
Whistler, Battersea Reach from Lindsey Houses, 1864-71
Of course, that natural attribute is just an excuse for Whistler's paintings. Whistler's exploration of pre-Impressionist painting is most evident in the disappointing small number of paintings in this exhibition. In one work, a group of women with Japanese parasols gaze at the pale continuum of water and sky, as if admiring the splendor of Mt. Fuji. One of the girls even wore a kimono. In fact, we were in Battersea, the dirty old Thames. But Japaneseism was the latest fashion at the time, and Whistler collected Japanese prints. He never gave up on the Western view of painting, but he was also a student of ukiyo-e flat spaces. It was the world floating in his mind.
On the other hand, it was these Whistler's own Japanese prints that put him in trouble. In fact, the whole exhibition feels terrible. Whistler & Nature is organised by the Hunterlian Museum in Glasgow, home to a world-class Whistler Collection, so you can expect stronger, more positive exhibits and an increase in the number of paintings. Although the paintings, lithographs or prints on display do not show his talent, they are accompanied by extravagant illustrations to compare Whistler and Rembrandt as printmakers. Despite the ninety works on display, the exhibition still feels insignificant. Surprisingly, neither the Hunterlian Museum nor the Fitzwilliam Museum managed to borrow even a single piece of the Nocturne series.
However, we can look at this exhibition in another way, and that is to completely ignore its boastful themes. Forget about the false focus of "nature" and instead observe the more intimate narrative of Whistler's life. Now, he's 25 years old, wearing his hat, and is sitting up from a chair with his young new wife, Beatrice. He and his relatives in Paris, or back in Greenwich, portrayed a pensioner. Notice the way he depicts etchings, the variations in his signatures, the quirky trademark butterfly that arrives as promised, the withdrawal engraved on some prints, and the advertising of upcoming London exhibitions.
Whistler, "The Lagoon from 'the second venice set"
The "Venetian" print is eccentric, dark, bizarre. In 1879, after losing all his money in the famous Ruskin lawsuit, he went there. Because the latter claimed Whistler had "thrown a can of paint in public." (Note: Ruskin, who visited an important exhibition with Whistler's work, was unhappy with the painter's painting "Fireworks Scattered on the River Thames: Serenades of Black and Gold," which he considered "a deception to knock over paint cans on canvas and pay the audience.") Whistler charged Ruskin in london's White District Court for insulting his reputation, which eventually sentenced Raskin to a ten-pence fine. Guilty, but only paying a fine of ten pence. In a deep and mysterious print, the picture consists almost entirely of fine vertical lines. Whistler cleverly swept light through the stones, glass, and water, making the city disappear in endless reflections.
Whistler, one of the Nocturne series, 1875-77
The final work is small, melancholy, and precise, and is a view of the River Thames and the Waterloo Bridge of the 1890s that he observed in his room in Savoy. It was also the place where his wife Beatrice died of cancer. The landscape of London turned hazy and smoky. And in the "Nocturne", which appears in the blue-green fog by the river, two strange forms that may appear are ships, possibly mirages in dusk, the scene of the disappearance of the material world, the last moment between light and darkness.