November 29, 1878—this day 146 years ago—was, for James Whistler and John Ruskin both, a day of taking stock. For this was the day after the verdict in the great case of Whistler v. Ruskin. Whistler had in the courtroom the day before exuberantly proclaimed victory, shouting across the courtroom to a friend and reporter …
On this day 145 years ago—September 19, 1879—James Whistler lost the house of his dreams. Designed by Whistler himself and his good friend architect Edward Godwin, the White House—the one in Chelsea, England, and not Washington D. C.—was meant to stand out from all of the other buildings on Tite Street, with its white façade …
In late 1863 Anna McNeill Whistler fled the war-torn United States, arriving in London early the next year and moving in with her son James. In order to accommodate her, Whistler was forced to move out his lover and live-in partner for the previous four years, Jo Hiffernan, to what he called a “buen ritiro.” …
Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander This stunning painting came into being thanks to the Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother, which Whistler had painted in 1871, the year before he created this one. Collector William Cleverly Alexander was so impressed by the Mother that he commissioned Whistler to paint …
Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother, contains what is arguably the most instantly-recognizable and iconic pose in all of American art. But when Whistler set out to paint his mother Anna, he had a very different conception for the portrait in mind. Had he not taken pity upon his mother and …
On February 4, 1884—140 years ago today—John Ruskin shared with the public the obsession that had haunted him for two decades, in his lecture “The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century.” For 23 years he had been aware of what he called the “plague-cloud,” filling his diaries all that time with gloomy and anxious observations of …
For James Whistler, the revolution began in 1875—with the creation of Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket. Whistler had already been painting scenes of London at night for four years. But this scene was different. The others generally evoked the tranquility of the quiescent Thames shore bathed in gentle moonlight. But in this …