The Influence Of The Far East

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

Another man might have been crushed by the misfortunes which now crowded on him, but fortunately Whistler was an etcher as well as a painter, and at this moment, when his pictures were unsaleable, he again turned to etching. He came to an arrangement with a firm, which advanced him a sum of money on etchings he engaged to execute, and with this he went in 1879 to Venice, where he developed a new and beautiful style in etching. In comparison with his earlier work, these Venice etchings were lighter in handling and more simplified in line; but they palpitated with light and air and were fairylike in their delicacy of decoration. ‘San Giorgio’ shows how spacious and satisfying an effect Whistler was now able to secure with a minimum of means.

These new etchings were not at first popular with the public and the critics any more than the nocturnes, but they were appreciated and purchased by many discriminating print collectors, and when Whistler returned to Chelsea towards the end of 1880 his position gradually improved. In 1883 he held a second and larger exhibition of his Venetian pieces at the Fine Art Society, and prepared an extraordinary catalogue, in which under each numbered exhibit appeared quotations taken from influential journals and well-known writers, all hostile, and beginning with this extract from Truth: ‘Another crop of Mr Whistler’s little jokes.’ The exhibition, which was beautifully arranged and staged, together with this quaint catalogue, caused an immense sensation. Never before had an artist made fun of his critics to this extent. Visitors could not fail to recognize the refinement in works like ‘San Giorgio,’ and when they read a sentence like ‘Whistler’s is eminently vulgar’ the criticism recoiled on the writer, not the artist. The tide began to turn, and a considerable opinion now became definitely favorable to Whistler. He began to paint again, people like Mrs Meux, the wife of the brewer, and Lady Archibald Campbell came to him for portraits, and his position was immensely strengthened when his ‘Portrait of the Artist’s Mother’ obtained a medal and a brilliant success in the Paris Salon of 1883. Later this work was bought by the French Government for the Luxembourg.

For the next few years Whistler made Paris his principal exhibition center. At the Grosvenor Gallery in 1881 his ‘Portrait of Miss Cicely Alexander’ had been dreadfully abused by English critics; in the Paris Salon of 1884 it was singled out for general approbation. For a brief season Whistler exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, of which he was elected President in June 1886, and under his presidency this Society held the most brilliant exhibitions in its history. But in 1888 there was a cabal against him by members discontented with his rule; Whistler was compelled to resign, and was followed by a number of talented artists whom he had persuaded to join the Society. When asked to explain what had happened, the ex-President replied, ‘It is quite simple; the artists have left and the British remain.’

The Influence Of The Far East (continued)