Whistler in London
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This penetrating look at James McNeill Whistler, offered by the Sackler Gallery’s “An American in London: Whistler and the Thames,” gives us new insights. It is not at all about his American roots or even about his mother, but about what he saw and painted in his adopted London. In 1855 at the age of 21, Whistler went to Paris to study art. Four years later, he moved to London and settled in Chelsea on the banks of the Thames River. This show examines Whistler’s work during those formative years, the 1860s and 1870s, when his perspective was taking shape.
While most of the old wooden bridges in London were being replaced, the Old Battersea Bridge remained in use. Whistler depicted it in various media — oil, lithography, etching, pastel, and pen and ink, looking either down from his window or up from a boat near the bridge’s scaffolding. An oil painting, “Brown and Silver: Old Battersea Bridge” (1859-1863), from his earliest years in Chelsea is frankly realistic. In contrast, his painting “Nocturne: Blue and Gold — Old Battersea Bridge” (1872-1875), obscures all detail and reduces structural elements to geometrical forms. His studies for this painting show the progression from realism to near abstract.
During those years, artists throughout Europe were fascinated with Japanese wood-block prints. Whistler collected blue and white porcelain and Japanese fans and used them to decorate his home. His painting “Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl” (1864) shows his model and companion, Joanna Hiffernan, dressed in a filmy white dress with long puffed sleeves and holding a Japanese fan from his collection. Just to the right of the painting is the actual fan, decorated by the artist Utagawa Hiroshige. Because her right arm is extended by her side, Whistler’s replica in the painting is upside down.
Another juxtaposition is a pair of vertical oil paintings of the same size. They are in similar frames, both of which bear the symbolic butterfly Whistler used as his signature. The “Variations in Pink and Grey” (1871-72) is in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The other one, “Variations in Violet and Green,” is in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. It is extraordinary to see them side-by-side.
An early painting, “Battersea Reach” (1863), notable for its asymmetric composition, depicts a host of boat masts, scraping the canvas top on the right, balanced by one small orange sail quickly skimming out of view on the left. The warm colors of the sunset are reflected in the rippling water. Another painting, “Chelsea in Ice” (1864), is a study in different shades of gray from the icy blue white in the foreground to the warmer pewter in the distance. Both are reminiscent of Impressionism. They could possibly have been seen by Monet and Pissarro while they were exiled in London during the Franco-Prussian War.
In a nearby gallery is a small exhibition of woodblock prints by a Japanese artist, Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915) who depicted scenes of the city of Edo (now Tokyo). While the two artists did not know each other’s work (Kiyochika’s work was not known in Europe before 1900) their motifs are amazingly similar and provide an illuminating sidebar to the Whistler exhibition.
An American in London: Whistler and the Thames, on view through August 17, 2014, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1050 Independence Ave SE, Washington, DC 20003, (202) 633-1000, http://www.asia.si.edu/
More information about Ms. Saul’s work can be found at www.pissarrosplaces.com.