Nocturne

Whistler was invited by the secretary of the British Fine Arts Committee, J. W. Beck, to exhibit in the British section at the World Columbian Exposition. But the artist, irascible as ever, was angry over previous treatment from the head of the Academy, Sir Frederick Leighton, who “skied” his paintings when sent for exhibition at the Academy. Whistler sent a scathing letter, exclaiming, “Leighton’s expressed wish that I should contribute to the British Section for the Chicago Exhibition, I confess fills me with the bewilderment of Thackeray’s little boy in the street, to whom he had abruptly given a penny, and whose surprise was more ready than his gratitude! Pray convey my distinguished consideration to the President, and say that I have an undefined sense of something ominously flattering occurring—but that no previous desire on his part ever to deal with work of mine, has prepared me with the proper sort of acknowledgment. No! no, Mr. Beck, ‘Once hung—twice Sky!’ ” Nonetheless Whistler still wished to participate and, in a letter to Halsey Ives, chief of the Fine Arts Department of the World’s Columbian Exhibition Corporation, wrote, “I am greatly interested in the Chicago Exposition and most anxious to be well represented there.” Walter C. Larned, vice chairman and Secretary of the Committee on Congresses of Artists, invited Whistler to give a talk on “The Impressionists—their aim, their position among painters today—the probable future of this school.” Whistler did not accept, though it seems from his correspondence that he considered attending the fair—though this, too, did not occur.

(“JapanAmerica: Points of Contact, 1876–1970,” curated by Nancy E. Green and presented at the Johnson Museum August 27–December 18, 2016)

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A choked highway of commercial and industrial boat traffic by day, the Thames quieted at night. It was at dusk when Whistler would have oarsmen row him onto the river, where they would remain adrift for hours as he sought the fleeting atmospheric effects of fog, smoke, and mist in the fading light of the waterway. Whistler became adept at creating the visual memory of a nighttime scene in his mind’s eye and then rendering it on canvas, plate, paper, or, as in this instance, lithographic stone in the studio. The pale blue paper provides a perfect ground for the quiet, monochromatic tone of Nocturne. (“The Touch of the Butterfly: Whistler and His Influence,” curated by Nancy E. Green and presented at the Johnson Museum August 4-December 16, 2018)