Whistler on Whistler

[yovargas]

I have the worst time hearing or caring about lyrics.

I used to be like that. Then I realized it's because most songs have really lame lyrics.

Whistler's art philosophy intrigues me a lot and it sounds a lot like the way I approach art in general (not just paintings). However, I must admit I find most of those paintings unpleasant. (Though a couple might be do to the poor pic quality.) To my eye, when he's good he's great, but when he's bad he's awful.

[Whistler]

Don't judge the paintings by these reproductions, Yov. Some of them I almost decided not to post, fearing that reaction.

As to lyrics...one reason I loathe almost all popular music is the inanity of the lyrics. I listen for lyrics before I even think about music, and if they are trite and meaningless (which is almost always the case) I lose interest immediately.

By "meaningless" I don't mean nonsensical. I like the Beatles' psychedelic period primarily because it marks the end of their "love me do, I love you, I'll be true" phase. Those are the kinds of clichés that make me crazy. But good nonsense can be fascinating.

Goo goo goo joob.

[vison]

Well, I’m pleased at the responses. Vision, I am surprised that you like the nocturnes because they don’t “say” anything except “this is beautiful.” I was under the impression that you were more literal-minded than that, judging by your earlier remarks. I judged you unfairly.

Whistler would be appalled that his “Arrangement In Black and Grey” is now known as “Whistler’s Mother” and is widely regarded as a sort of sentimental tribute to motherhood. But of course these things have a life of their own, once they are released to the public.

Voronwë, do you feel better to have that out of your system?

I can put myself in the picture, Whistler. There's a story in each one, I can tell you that. To me, they are more than just pleasing arrangements of colour and line!

Yet, "This is beautiful" is an emotional response, automatic and instinctive, when one is presented with beauty. Or not.

Now, whether I would want those pictures on my own walls? The last one, yes. The others? I don't know. They are rather dark and powerful and might overwhelm me.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Voronwë, do you feel better to have that out of your system?

Not really, but thanks for asking.

But I am glad to see that the thread continues on track, despite my shameless self-gratification.

[Impenitent]

This is my Whistler etching, a scene from Amsterdam. There are tiny windmills visible in the background, if you look for them.

I'm not posting this to elicit compliments, so you needn't pretend to like it: Whistler deliberately worked in such a way as to conceal his skills, despising all showiness in art. The result is art that looks effortless, unfinished, almost accidental. But it is as carefully planned and executed as the work of a surgeon.

I've only just seen this (yes, I admit it, I potter around, miss what's going on, and peek in later).

Whistler, I like that etching very much! So evocative! Unstudied, unfettered, light.

(I'll post this and continue reading the thread - I'm half way through page 1 - and doubtless discover a wonderful exegesis on it and feel dreadfully embarrassed, but oh well!)

[Whistler]

Unstudied, unfettered, light...exactly what Whistler always aimed for.

His emblem was the butterfly, and as an artist he tried to embody a butterfly's effortless grace and delicacy.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Whistler, any thoughts about Whistler's relationship with Atkinson Grimshaw (whose noctural paintings, like the one above, I like very much)?

[Whistler]

As I recall, Whistler (in an uncharacteristic show of modesty) admitted that he considered himself the inventor of nocturnes until he discovered the work of the man he called "Grimmy."

I must read more about this artist. Clearly he and Whistler were thinking along the same lines. This particular piece appears to combine a Whistler nocturne with one of Whistler's maritime etchings. The effect is very powerful, I agree.

[Impenitent]

It is gorgeous!

[vison]

Is the lady in the carriage going to get on a ship, or did she just get off one?

Or . . . is she about to conduct "business" on the docks?

Yes, I can see her. She's wearing a black taffeta gown trimmed with jet, a charming little confection of a hat, and a veil. Her frock is showing a lot of decolletage, but just now she's wearing a sealskin cape and her long, tapered fingers are elegantly gloved in kidskin. Her half boots are the finest calf-leather and her silk stockings are grey, with little clocks over the ankles. On her lap lies her reticule, containing a keyring with four keys, a vial of Eau de Cologne, a handkerchief and, wrapped in a scarlet length of the finest silk, a lock of raven hair.

She opens the reticule as the carriage jolts and rattles over the cobblestones. She draws out the silk-wrapped lock of hair, opens the wrapping, strokes the hair once, twice, then flings it out the window with a sob.

"Antoine!" she sighs, and holds the silk to her mouth. She breathes the fragrance of The East. She sobs again and falls back against the cushions just as the coachman asks, "Here, madam?"

She draws herself up and looks out at the forest of masts outlined against the dimly lit night. The spars sway with the incoming tide. For a moment, only a moment, she feels the sway of the ships along her bones, as if the night were about to slide away from her.

If only it could end here! But no. It cannot.

She forces herself to speak.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

That quite a vision you have, vison!

[truehobbit]

ROFL, vison!
Ok, I guess I don't go all that far when, as I said in the other thread, I also like to think about the artist's reason for painting what he or she painted!
(Although I must admit it has happened that I saw a pic and thought: this calls for story! )

That is an awesome picture! What light there is, is used to a very vibrant effect!

If I were to make a story for it, it would be very different from vison's, too.
So, I'm wondering if your idea was really inspired by the pic or if you just came up with something funny?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Whistler, "Grimmy"? Really? That is too funny.

Strangely enough, my interest in Grimshaw was sparked by the fact that there are repeated references to him in the books of one of my favorite pulp fiction (if that is the right term) authors - Jack Higgins. In the book that I just finished, Drink With the Devil one of Higgins' best known characters, Liam Devlin (who first appeared in Higgins classic WWII novel The Eagle Has Landed owns several Grimshaws, and comments:

I've always had a thing for old Grimshaw. Love his night scenes. Whistler once said that to call him the master of the nocturne was false. THat anything he knew he'd learned from Grimshaw.

That finally got me to look up Grimshaw's work, and see if I could find any references to his relationship with Whistler. I found this comment at this website:

"The artist's harbor scenes may owe a debt to both J. M. W. Turner and to Whistler, who allegedly acknowledged Grimshaw as an inventor of 'nocturnes' (Alexander Gallery, p. 8 ).

A number of sites had the even more cryptic (and intriguing) comment "It is rumoured that he was a friend of Whistler".

I now see another site that says virtually the same thing that our Whistler says - 'Whistler is reported as saying, "I thought I had invented the nocturne, until I saw Grimmy's moonlights".'

The painting that I posted isn't necessarily my favorite of the ones that I have seen at very sites today, just one of many that I like very much.

Edited to add, from the same site that I quote before with the "Grimmy" quote:

Grimshaw had underlined the following passage in his own copy of Whistler's Ten O'Clock Lecture:

And when the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairy-land is before us - then the wayfarer hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the one of pleasure, cease to understand, as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who, for once, has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artist alone, her son and master - her son that he loves her, her master in that he knows her.

Wow!

[yovargas]

The painting is great. vison's posts are better.


vison rocks.

[Primula Baggins]

The quote from Whistler is marvelous, too.

But I agree that vison rocks.

And the Grimshaw painting is striking and (to me) evocative. I like it very much.

[Whistler]

Wow indeed.

By the way...Whistler's Ten O’clock Lecture was exactly that. He deliberately scheduled it for a time when most people would be unwilling to attend, being more interested in their beds. In that way he could limit his audience to those who genuinely loved art and would endure a little inconvenience for the sake of understanding it better.

[vison]

The more I learn about Whistler the more I admire him, apart from his marvellous paintings.

A shameless self-promoter! And, why, indeed, should such a great artist feel shame for knowing he is great?

truehobbit, a friend of mine calls her muse "Brunhilde". I call mine by some sweller name, less stalwart.

I just make it up as I go along. I could write something different:

Captain Wakefield leaned back, exhausted, against the mouldy cushions of the rattletrap coach. Behind him lay a four month voyage that had been misery from the first hour. Ahead of him lay more torment, and yet as a man of duty and honour, what choice did he have but to go on?

His ship was now tied up at the wharf and his cargo being unladen by as ruffianly a crew of longshoremen as he'd ever seen. Yet he was sure he would find it safe in bond the next day since he'd left his First Mate Arbuckle in charge; no man would dare to try anything crooked with Arbuckle standing by with folded arms, his one eye sharp to see aught out of place. Arbuckle could be counted on, unlike . . .some.

The coach jolted along the rough street. The noisome fog penetrated the cracked windows and Wakefield's lip curled in distaste. He'd forgotten the stink of the docks in this town. The whole town stank, but here he would see Sophie and nowhere else on Earth.

Sophie! The name alone stirred him. He smiled as he thought of her, her sweet face, her eyes that would light up to see him.

And here he was, bringing the news that would quench that light forever. He wished, were wishing of any use, that he could bid the coachman turn and take him back to his ship.

Now they were at the end of the docks and the street began to climb up to the town proper. Street lamps glowed feebly in the thick fog. Sound carried; Wakefield could hear a dog barking, then a man's shout. A few bars of some vulgar song were heard as they passed a tavern. Wakefield closed his eyes.

There was her house. There, square and grim and respectable, black and dreary in the miserable light of the gas lamps. One window was faintly lit, he knew it for the drawing room window. She would be there, maybe reading, maybe turning over a deck of cards in one of her endless games of Patience. Would she hear the coach draw up in the street before her door?

My goodness me, I'd better stop. I could, as some of you know, go on forever!

[Primula Baggins]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I just realized that the front cover of my copy of Jonanthan Strange and Mr. Norrell has a print of Grimshaw painting on it. How strangely appropriate.

[baby tuckoo]

Well, this thread takes on a new life.

WHISTLER COMES TO THE SACRAMENTO AREA!!!!!!

So long as a one hour drive is in the "area." Which it is.

Yes, the Hunterian Museum and Gallery in Glasgow has sent a collection of 120 paintings, lithos, etchings, and personal possessions of James McNeill Whistler to the Nevada Museum of Art, in Reno.

Those of you from elsewhere might not know that Reno is an easy freeway drive from Sacramento. Thus, a review of the exhibit appeared today in the Sacramento Bee. (See it yourself: www.SacTicket.com) No, that's not a linky, I don't know how to do those.

Even the Bay Area folk could make it, though it's a 4 hour drive for y'all. You could see the Whistler stuff, then go lose money

Apparently, this is his personal collection, the stuff he chose to keep and live with. There's a self-portrait, a study for "Gold and Brown", which is at the National Gallery. There's "Little Lizzie Willis". There's "Annabel Lee" (like many Brits at the time, he was smitten by Poe), and there are many examples of his Asian art.

I wasn't in on the original thread here, but I've long admired Whistler, as well as J. S. Sargeant. Both Americans, they adopted England, then went continental but stopped short of Impressionism though drawn to its spirit.

There are many copperplate etchings also in the exhibit, which runs through Jan. 7. Fortunate for me. Several school holidays come between now and then, so long as there is a break from bad weather. Reno is high Sierra desert and one must pass through Donner Pass to get there. Yes, there's a Donner Diner, and it's well worth visiting for the cheap jokes available.

To be seen in Reno:

"The Thames Set". Etchings with bridges and ships and warehouses, realistic and precise.

"The Venice Etchings". Atmospheric renderings strongly influenced by Japanese artists he admired. (Manet and Cassatt also went for the Japanese.) Included is "The Palaces", which depicts two Palazzos on the southwest bank of the Grand Canal.

Two of the "Hokusai" prints from 36 Views of Mt. Fuji.

All 6 of the "Ms. Ethel" paintings. This was his sister put into clothing she probably didn't own or even wear, just to make her look good.

Letters. In his hand.

The "Ten O'Clock Lecture" itself, in his hand.

Various possessions of the artist. He kept them around cuz he liked them. Most are silver and porcelain.


Anyone up for a mini-moot of Californians? Or others? Yes, it means going to Reno. I'll be sure to thank Angel and Alice for the loan.

Whistler, why are these items in a Glasgow museum? I'll look into it myself, but you might know something here.

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