| This dissertation demonstrates that the reading of the surface of works by James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) can be combined with the study of documentary and historical sources to increase the understanding of this artist's oeuvre. The surface treatment of paintings, pastels, lithographs, decorated furniture, and one painted interior are examined in conjunction with correspondence, contemporary descriptions, and technical study of his working procedures. Whistler created a public image for himself as a combative, original genius; however, study of his techniques reveals an artist who borrowed freely from his close artistic associates, and study of his correspondence reveals a loyal friend and husband. Decisions made with regard to brushwork, pigments, ground color, and composition testify to his collegial interchanges with artists Henri Fantin-Latour and Albert Moore, architect E. W. Godwin, and poet Stephane Mallarme. Application of gilding directly to unprimed wood for custom-designed frames was a technique borrowed from Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite painters. Whistler first admired Gustave Courbet and adopted the French artist's dark grounds, dark tonalities, and bold techniques of paint manipulation. After announcing his rejection of Courbet in an 1867 letter to Fantin, Whistler abruptly changed his brushstroke and adjusted his palette. After several years of frustration and uncompleted projects while working in tandem with Albert Moore, Whistler borrowed elements from techniques used by Moore and Fantin and devised his trademark facture of a one-skin paint surface rubbed into canvas. I refer this surface as "weavism." In the mid-1870s and 1880s Whistler was friendly with Godwin and became involved with interior design and painted furniture. The facture of Whistler's decorative art surfaces is commensurate with artistic philosophies shared with Godwin. Whistler's oeuvre in the last decades of his life was informed by his reliance on his artist-wife Beatrice Birnie Philip Godwin Whistler, his involvement in the circle of Stephane Mallarme, and his friendship with collector Charles L. Freer. Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Little Blue Girl, a painting still in Whistler's studio when he died, is studied as a retrospective of his career, techniques, and friendships. |
