| Artist: | Whistler, James Abbot McNeil |
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|---|---|---|
| Title of Work: | The White Girl (Symphony in White, No.1) | |
| Date of Work: | 1862 | |
| Nationality: | American | |
| Context: | The Turn of the Century | |
| Movement: | Art for Art's Sake | |
| Medium: | Oil | |
| Subject: "the bride's morning after," as one critic put it. The question of just what is Whistler's subject here bothered the critics precisely because the picture did not function like traditional allegory; it does not tell a complete story and there is no clear cut moral. The woman is haunting and enigmatic as she stands on the bearskin rug; her long red hair is down, and she holds a wilted flower in her hand, suggesting a deflowering of her virginity. Whistler works more from suggestion, however, than from any defined, academic tradition. The subject matter, which hinted at a sexual subtext, was considered vulgar. Style: critics considered the style to be vulgar, as well. They accused the painting of being slapdash in execution and the draftsmanship of being mediocre; Whistler decidely breaks with the fetish of finish that characterized academic paintings, with their slick, polished surfaces. His work is sketchier in both its style and subject. He cuts off deep space with the drapery backdrop and thus keeps emphasis on the surface. Note that he gave the painting two titles: one that is descriptive of the subject ("The White Girl") and the other that is more aesthetically focused on form ("Symphony in White, No. 1). Context: Whistler's early work is often linked with the Impressionists, but this American ex-patriot is not based in Paris but in London, where he fits more with the end of the century aesthetic movement that fabvored art for art's sake. He cultivated a style of eccentricity in his own dress and affirmed his onw individual style of painting. Whistler believed art should be free of function and morality; artists should be responsible to nothing but art, with beauty as their only master. He favored a complex, irregular beauty and was highly influenced by Asian art and design. In his focus on aesthetics and an art for art's sake, he pushes towards abstraction and Formalism (where the content of art is art, not narrative or subject matter). | ||
