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Micheline's Blog

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Tag Archives: National Gallery of Art

James McNeill Whistler: Women

24 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, United States

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Édouard Manet, Freer Gallery of Art, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, London, Maud Franklin, Musée d'Orsay, National Gallery of Art, Whistler

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 5150-004-540FAA4Bharmony-in-red-lamplight_jpg!Blog
 
 

 

Head of a Young Woman, ca. 1890
Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl, 1862 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.)
Arrangement in White and Black, 1876 (Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)
Harmony in Red Lamplight, 1886
Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: The Artist’s Mother, 1871–72 (Musée d’Orsay, Paris)
Photo credit: Wikipaintings.org
The Athenæum
 

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (July 10, 1834 – July 17, 1903)

There is more to say about Reynard and motifs, but all I can send my readers today are pictures of the women in the life of American-born London-based artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler (July 10, 1834 – July 17, 1903).  I have been sick with migraine for the last two days.  The second part of my blog will be posted later.

Three Women: jO, Maud and Beatrice

The two loves of Whistler’s life were Joanna “Jo” Hiffernan (ca. 1843 – after 1903) and Maud Franklin (9 January 1857 – ca. 1941).  Joanna had been Whistler’s model and helped him raise his son Charles James Whistler Hanson (1870–1935) the result of an affair with a parlour maid, Louisa Fanny Hanson.  Whistler’s mother never learned about her grandson.

Whistler painted a portrait of Joanna which he showed at the 1863 Paris Salon des Refusés (the Exhibition of Rejects [non Academic works]) at the same time as  Édouard Manet‘s showed his Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1862-1863).  Manet’s painting caused a scandal, but Whistler’s Symphony in White, No. 1, a work in the manner of the Pre-Raphaelites, did not go unnoticed.  On the contrary.   We also have a painting of Maud, Arrangement in White and Black, 1876.

In 1888, Whistler married Beatrice (“Trixie”) Godwin (née Beatrix Birnie Philip).  She had been his pupil and model.  She was the former wife of architect Edward William Godwin.  They first lived in Paris but returned to England when she was diagnosed with cancer.  “Trixie” posed for Harmony in Red Lamplight, 1886.  They lived in the Savoy Hotel until her death in 1896.  Trixie was 39 at the moment of her death.  Whistler himself died seven years later.

Whistler’s Mother

However the woman who dominates Whistler’s life is his mother, born Anna Mathilda McNeill (September 27, 1804 – January 3, 1881). James’ mother had Southern roots.  Whistler enjoyed looking upon himself as an “impoverished Southern aristocrat.”  James did not want to have been born in Lowell, Massachusetts.  Later in life, when he sued John Ruskin for libel, he insisted he was born in Saint Petersburg.

After Whistler settled in England, in the 1860s, she joined him.  She did not like her son’s bohemian lifestyle, so accommodations had to be found for “Jo.”  Yet, the most famous of Whistler’s painting is the now iconic Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: The Artist’s Mother (1871–72), a portrait of Whistler’s mother.  When she died, he added her name, McNeill, to his.

I will pause here…

Whistler by William Merritt Chase, 1885
292px-Chase_William_Merritt_James_Abbott_McNeill_Whistler_1885

Micheline Walker©
April 23, 2013
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Jean-Honoré Fragonard: July 21st, 2012

21 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Encyclopædia Britannica, François Boucher, Le Monde diplomatique, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Monde, National Gallery of Art, National Post, New York Times

La Lettre d’amour by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, c. 1770

The Love Letter is housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY and
La Liseuse (Young Woman Reading), in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
(for photo credit, please click on the names given the paintings)
 

Jean-Honoré Fragonard (5 April 1732 – 22 August 1806).  Today, the news are the main content of my post.  However, above and to your right, there are paintings by Fragonard and a video on Fragonard, at the bottom of the page.

Born in Grasse, in the Alpes-Maritimes where his father was a glover, Jean-Honoré first articled to a Paris notary when his father experienced financial difficulties.  Jean-Honoré then apprenticed first with François Boucher who quickly gave him a different master: Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin.  He was extremely talented and won the Prix de Rome in 1752, but before leaving for Rome, he also apprenticed with Charles-André van Loo, a native of Nice.

Jean-Honoré was a Rococo artist, but during his lifetime Rococo art was all but eclipsed as Neoclassicism became the art of the day.  Moreover, Fragonard was not spared the French Revolution.  It deprived him of patrons, most of whom were guillotined or went into exile.  He then took refuge in his native Grasse, where he remained until the 19th century.  When he returned to Paris, he had become a forgotten artist.

His productivity is stunning.  His legacy numbers 550 or so works, excluding etchings and drawings.  Etchings are more affordable than paintings since several copies, limited and numbered, can be made.  Moreover, the actual etching can be executed by an assistant who copies his master’s drawings.

Fragonard best-knowing works are associated with a contained form of Rococo art.  According to Wikipedia, Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s work is charactered by exuberance and hedonism, which are Rococo features.  Fragonard also produced genre paintings “conveying an atmosphere of intimacy and veiled eroticism.” (Wikipedia)  “Veiled eroticim” is also a characteristic of François Boucher’s works, Fragonard’s first teacher.  Louis XV is often described as a libertin king and libertinage is expressed in the art created during his reign.

Madame de Pompadour was a patron to François Boucher and Madame Du Barry, a patron to Fragonard.  She became a royal mistress, and was guillotined on December 8th, 1793.

La Liseuse by Fragonard, c. 1776

______________________________
Sources:
  • Sir F. J. B. Watson, “Jean-Honoré Fragonard.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 21 Jul. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/215648/Jean-Honore-Fragonard>.
  • Wikipedia
 
 
 
© Micheline Walker
21 July 2012
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