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Glyphs

Butler Institute of American Art

LA County Museum of Art

Ten O'Clock Lecture

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Whistler was born in Massachusetts in 1834, but he grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia, where his father (an Army engineer) was employed by the Czar to construct the railroad between that city and Moscow. He studied drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.

He was sent to West Point. He accumulated 218 demerits before being expelled (200 is the limit) by the superintendent Robert E. Lee. (He actually had more demerits but Lee had persuaded some of the instructors to drop them in an effort to help Whistler.)

One assignment was to design a bridge over a river.  Whistler turned in a drawing of a bridge with two children standing in the middle.  The instructor reminded him of the military nature of the class and told him to bring the drawing back the next day without the children on the bridge.  So Whistler brought a drawing with two children standing on the shore.  When the intructor ordered him to remove the children, Whistler handed in a drawing with two crosses on the hill.

At age 21, he moved to Paris. He soon went to London where he developed his own style influenced by the French, Velasquez and Japanese prints. British painting was very 'staid and steady." An artist's acceptance was dependent upon the approval of the Royal Academy. They quickly branded Whistler as an "outlaw."

In 1877 he exhibited Nocturne in Black and Gold, John Ruskin, the most important art critic of the time, accused him of "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face." Whistler sued Ruskin for libel. The courtroom was filled with spectators. Whistler defended his work, and won a farthing in token damages. The court costs ruined him and he was forced to sell all of his possessions to pay his debts.  He then moved to Venice.

Whistler became hypersensitive, took offense easily and attacked violently anyone who crossed him. He drove away any of his young followers who became successful. He began to refer to himself in the third person as, "The Master."

While in Venice he did a series of 40 etchings which were successfully exhibited, along with 53 pastels, in London in December 1880. He had another successful exhibit three years later. He printed in the catalog extracts of the most hostile and unintelligent remarks the critics had earlier made about him. This section was entitled, "Out of Their Mouths Shall Ye Judge Them."

Whistler was made president of the Society of British Artists in 1884. But he soon left the organization along with a small group of followers; "The artists have come out, and the British remain."

In 1885 he first delivered the Ten-O'clock Lecture (art for art's sake; artist is like a musician: notes, chords, harmony)

Whistler achieved international fame in the 1890s.

He used musical terms for his paintings: nocturne, symphony, harmony.  In fact, the real title of his most famous painting is not Whistler's Mother.  It is Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1.

His trademark was a butterfly with a scorpion tail.

He didn't take it seriously...he just Whistled his way along.  He also used musical terms for his paintings.