Overview

Nothing prepares one for the immediacy of James McNeill Whistler's Portrait of William Merritt Chase, transfixing the viewer in stasis. Whistler adopted a synthesis from the grandeur of the Venetian Renaissance with the Baroque and realized a portrait dialogue of light and oneness recorded the psychological nobility of nineteenth century male persona. On September 1, 1885 Whistler announced to Chase, ""The world will have to wait a little longer,"" and in 1888, placed this portrait with British diplomat to Berlin, James Rennell Rodd into a hidden location. A trustworthy diplomat, Rodd shared a history with Whistler as a victim of Wilde's plagiarism. This portrait is Oscar Wilde's, The Picture of Dorian Gray, published in 1890. Wilde's only novel was meant to be an insult after Whistler's public chastisement in his ""Ten O'clock,"" lecture, claiming back the words Wilde had stolen. Wilde's plagiarism of Whistler's artistic ideology was the antecedent to Whistler's public humiliation of Wilde. Whistler was not about to let Wilde steal his Portrait of William Merritt Chase, and made Chase the scapegoat, calling his portrait of him a ""monstrous lampoon."" Support from earlier historical documentation and scholarship complete this manuscript, and will identify this portrait is a document of Whistler's genius an amalgamation from antiquity, the Old Masters and Japanese painting. Diego Velazquez was Whistler's muse, recorded in his paintings, portraits and personal photographs, although there is more than Velazquez as Rembrandt and earlier Old Masters are documented in his masterpiece. Historical documentation, earlier scholarship, scientific evidence, follower's portraits and foremost Whistler's hand was recorded in his Portrait of William Merritt Chase as no other artist painted in his individual style.

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Reviews

""Meanwhile our two pictures, By the way the world will have to wait, for yet a little longer. You see Colonel we rather handicapped each other I fancy and neither master is really quite fit for public presentation as he stands on canvas at this moment. So we must reserve them, screening them from the eye of jealous mortals on both sides of the Atlantic until they burst upon the painters in the swagger of completeness."" James McNeill Whistler(1834-1903) ""Hang on the walls of your mind the memory of your successes. Take counsel of your strength, not your weakness. Think of the good jobs you have done. Think of the times when you rose above your average level of performance and carried out an idea or a dream or a desire for which you had deeply longed. Hang these pictures on the walls of your mind and look at them as you travel the roadway of life."" James McNeill Whistler(1834-1903) ""What is painting but the act of embracing by means of art the surface of the pool?"" Leon Battista Alberti(1404-1472) ""Without atmosphere a painting is nothing."" Rembrandt van Rijn (1640-1670) ""The labour of two days is that for which you ask 200 guineas?-No; I ask it for the knowledge which I have gained in the work of a lifetime (applause)' (press cutting in GUL BP II P/C II, p. 28)."" Quoted from Whistler vs Ruskin trial, in ""The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler,"" ""Text,"" Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret MacDonald, Robin Spencer, with the assistance of Hamish Miles ""They are not merely canvases having interest in themselves alone, but are intended to indicate slightly to 'those whom it may concern' something of my theory in art. The science of colour and 'picture pattern' as I have worked out for myself during these years."" James McNeill Whistler quote during his 1873 exhibition of Nocturnes and Portraits at Durand-Ruel's, Paris, France. ""By using the word 'nocturne' I wished to indicate an artistic interest alone, divesting the picture of any outside anecdotal interest which might have otherwise attached to it. A nocturne is an arrangement of line, form, and colour first. I make use of any means, any incident or object in nature, that will bring about a symmetrical result."" James McNeill Whistler quote during the Ruskin trial, 1878ca.

Author Information

Angelle Vinet is a self-taught Whistler scholar with twenty years of research on James McNeill Whistler, this is her third book. Vinet attended three years of art studies at, The American College for the Applied Arts, Atlanta, GA, Paris American Academy, Paris, France and La Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, Paris, France. Her two prior books are titled, James McNeill Whistler and Evolution of Painting from the Old Masters, Identified by two Missing Masterpieces and James McNeill Whistler's Harmony in Black No.10, 1885, A Scholarly Analysis of his Masterpiece, Website, www.JamesMcNeillWhistler.com.

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