The Paintings Of James Mcneill Whistler Text

Here in two beautifully produced volumes is the first complete catalogue of Whistler's paintings ever published. This monumental work records in the fullest possible detail the history, provenance, and sources of all Whistler's known paintings, including many that were destroyed or have since disappeared, and includes full-page reproductions, many of them in color, of the paintings that are still extant.

The discovery of this masterpiece Whistler's "Portrait of William Merritt Chase," along with another important Whistler painting, "Harmony in Black, No10," reveals exciting new discoveries on Whistler's artistic methods, from the Old Masters and the artistic truisms of the Renaissance. Documented analysis including x-ray examination, forensics and recognized paintings by Whistler's followers will confirm this portrait and "Harmony in Black, No10," with x-ray revealing two lost paintings. These Whistler paintings connect scholarship and identify paintings worthy of merit and what makes a masterpiece a masterpiece.

Whistler's work can be divided into four periods. The first was a research period in which the artist was influenced by the Realism of Gustave Courbet and by Japanese art. Whistler then discovered his own originality in the Nocturnes and the Cremorne Gardens series, thereby coming into conflict with the academics who wanted a work of art to tell a story. When he painted the portrait of his mother, Whistler entitled it Arrangement in Gray and Black, and this is symbolic of his aesthetic theories.

An illustrated study of American painter James Whistler.