Evaluation of James McNeil Whistler's - Essay Example

?The work of James Abbot McNeill Whistler provided new maverick impulses to contemporary art in Europe and America simultaneously. Through various influences provided to art, Whistler’s largest contribution by far was that to tonalism. The genre of tonalism is not simply associated to Whistler as an artist but as a founder. As an artist, Whistler did not give in to influences of sentimentality and moral allusion that were prevalent in his time. Instead he concentrated greatly on the power of presenting shape and form. The core contention behind Whistler’s work can be defined by his own credo that read “art for art’s sake”. This means that a perusal of most of Whistler’s work will reveal little else than an artist’s creative impulses gone wild. Tonalism can be seen as a result of these creative impulses of Whistler. Whistler’s 1866 Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso (910 x 1080 x 100 mm painting, oil on canvas, London: Tate, N05065) is perhaps one of the earliest works that reflects the artist’s desire for tonalist attitudes. The painting is the first piece in a large number of similar works that followed at the hands of Whistler. This indicates that the Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso (Figure 1) cannot be evaluated in isolation from these other related works because they share similar traits and characteristics that eventually came to define tonalism. Another major thing to take note of is the relative unknown nature of Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso as not many treatises on art especially art from the tonalist genres have given it much focus1. However if the period immediately before this painting in Whistler’s life is looked at, it will become very clear that it defines a personal rebellion. In turn this personal rebellion from an already Maverick persona resulted in new nuances being painted into the heart of the world of art. The combination of various rebellious attitudes coupled with a distant past in the military gave birth to the Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso and its sister works that were all created in Chile and represented similar militaristic scenarios processed through the lens of an artist’s eyes. The sister pieces of the Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso include The Morning after the Revolution: Valparaiso, Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso Bay (Figure 3) and the sketch for Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso Bay (Figure 4). Whistler possessed an uncanny genius for art from an early age2 and this in turn affected his personal choices on life and career. Being a rebel from the start, Whistler was quick to abandon his career with the military at West Point but this in turn left some unfinished desires with Whistler3. As the rebellion in the Spanish colony of Chile took on the shape of a war, Whistler was attracted to revisit the military based part of his persona. Speculation remains to why Whistler went to Chile – some claim he was looking to satisfy his militarism based impulses from West Point4, others think that Whistler considered the rebellion of the Chileans as heroic5 while recent research suggests that he was selling arms to the Chileans. In any case, Whistler was an artist before he went to Chile and artists generally detest war because of its barbaric conduct. However Whistler still chose to go to Chile. Before this point in time Whistler had been rebelling from an ordinary life in order to achieve his life of artistic desire6. Yet his voyage to Chile reveals that now Whistler was rebelling from his artistic life in order to come to terms with a life where you have to work to make some money. This in turn indicates that Whistler was more or less at war with himself at this point in time and his accounts from the ship he travelled on show a Whistler who is disinterested in life and what happens around him. His personal infighting must have kept him well occupied on his journey from Spain to Chile. His first painting in this series of paintings, Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso represents just that struggle emerging slowly and steadily from within the colors of the paining although the scenario depicted is totally calm and complacent. Had a pure soldier been on board in Whistler’s persona, there were chances that he would prefer to smoke his pipe where Whistler chose to paint instead. The painting itself is rather unconventional for its time in a few ways but it does keep in line with quite a few of Whistler’s own techniques. For one thing, Whistler preferred a certain shade of pink for many of his works and he referred to this hue of pink as the “flesh color”. The designation of a color as “flesh color” in itself carries a lot of meaning for Whistler’s tradition. The association between flesh and color and the ability to translate color onto canvas means that Whistler thought it possible to translate human emotions and feelings into painting. Certain critics have suggested that for Whistler color alone in it representing the aesthetic could “assume the importance of representations of the human body as a carrier of meaning in traditions of Western painting”7. This signifies that the human body and the body of the painting by Whistler within this tradition are analogical. The human body carries our thoughts and emotions and so does the painting by Whistler carry his thoughts and emotions that have been frozen in time. The use of “flesh color” in Whistler’s paintings is not new to Crepuscule in Flesh Colour and Green: Valparaiso but has been present in Whistler’s previous works such as La Princesse which dates to the previous year. This particular painting Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso has also been primed using the same eponymous “flesh color”. This has been done in a fashion such that the basic integument of paint that lies beneath the image is composed of the same peachy skin that is more or less signature to Whistler8. Based on the arguments presented above it can be easily concluded that Whistler has transferred part of himself and his emotional state into the painting through the use of his “flesh color” technique. Other than this, another issue must be brought into focus as well. Whistler had a habit of concealment throughout the duration of his life. This does not indicate that Whistler was a swindler or such but it denotes that Whistler used to place hidden connotations within the breadth of his work. It is well known that Whistler pretended to a Southern gentleman while in Europe while there was no such background to him or his family at any point in time9. This fact indicates that Whistler lived his life such that identities and ideas were superimposed in his persona on top of each other. On the one hand Whistler was an artist while on the other he was a military man and yet his persona is also compounded by a man suffering from ill health as well as a musician showing at the margins. Often Whistler’s inner thoughts and emotions are very hard to trace in his work because of their apparent composure and irrelevance to Whistler’s being. In the case of Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso too the work has overtones and undertones as well that are not visible at first glance. The painting depicts the Valparaiso bay during the Spanish siege after which the city was bombarded. In order to fully comprehend the various things represented by Whistler’s work it is pertinent to describe it in detail first. The Valparaiso bay was surrounded by Spanish ships before it was bombarded days after Whistler came to the city. The Spanish were effectively blockading the city as it was an important harbor. Whistler’s work depicts the harbor at dusk showing the large fleet of Spanish ships blockading the harbor. The painting has been described by Athenaeum of the French Gallery in London (where Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso was displayed for the first time) as a painting of10: “… dusk in a harbor of the great ocean, probably the pool of Valparaiso, although there is not enough of land to represented to enable one to identify the locality. The painter’s theme was rather the grayish green of twilight sinking on the sea, and ships becalmed, at anchor, or gently moving.” Whistler has portrayed the sea as thin and stretching out as far as the eye goes. There is no presence of land as indicated above. The sky on the other hand has been painted as thick by Whistler in comparison to the sea. The thick paint used on the sky has probably been applied wet on wet. The whites and lavenders can be seen sliding into the pale blues used in the painting in a manner such that their ridges are clearly visible in certain portions. The sails and the skiffs of the ships in the painting have been done using the creamier stokes of white and the pigment used can be seen crowding the edges of each successive stroke. However the center of the white strokes has been swept clean in nearly all the instances of the sails and the skiffs. In terms of painting technique, the ships resemble little effort on the part of a skilled virtuoso as Whistler. Instead the area for focus remains the strange yet alluring composition of the seas and the sky. One of the most notable features of Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso in comparison to the sister pieces is the fact that it has been done horizontally while the other pieces have been done vertically. In comparison, all the other pieces depict the same dock using the very same station as that used in Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso. However this piece can be considered the first of its kind as it helped Whistler define his later “nocturne” series of paintings. Whistler often named his pieces in respect of musical pieces such as “arrangements”, “harmonies” and “nocturnes” which he also used to emphasize the primacy of tonal harmonies that could be used to relate painting and music11. In itself the word “nocturne” denotes pieces of music done in the evening and later. The painting in question, Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso also depicts the evening in the dock. In this a visible overtone of the painting is clear and comes to light easily. The harbor has been portrayed as a long picture in the early evening and the ships are moored with partly furled sails12. The ships being moored denote that they are here to stay and the furled sails only reinforce such belief. Hence, if warships are moored outside a harbor one would expect to see some violence or aggression in the work of the artist such as the use of sharper colors or more vivid shapes. However this is not the case. The dominating portion of the painting consists of an array of green and blue that lines the left sides of the painting. The sea and the sky above it are calm, complacent and well composed. There is no action on the ships, not even sailors depicted anywhere. This can only mean one thing more clearly than anything else – the painting depicts the calm before the storm. Historical evidence indicates clearly that Valparaiso was bombarded a few days later so the notion of calmness before the storm is well grounded. There is also something else that does not meet the eye head on. As mentioned before, Whistler returned soon after the action in Chile to Europe probably with the mistaken identity of the soldier inside him dead. This belief is well grounded in this painting’s tones. The painting reflects an artist who has finally accepted the heavy hand of fate and realized that he is more an artist than anything else. The painting is like a prisoner on death row – the initial excitement and anxiety dies down after the realization that death is inevitable but the lingering discontent of defeat remains in the air. Whistler’s Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso represents a similar mood – the artist has finally admitted that he is not a soldier but the lingering discontent of defeat in his persona can be seen lounging around in his work. The very composed and calm bewilderment experienced by Whistler through his personal defeat is reflected in the painting as the calm and composed harbor with ships moored. There is further evidence as well in the painting that indicates that Whistler more or less accepted fate. The painting displays a rather thick border between the sea and the sky on the left side. This is shown in the right side of Figure 1 as well below. The border between the sea and the sky could easily have been shown much thinner by Whistler but he chose not to do so. The demarcation between the sea and the sky that is this well defined indicates that Whistler has demarcated something for himself really well. By nature and behavior, Whistler was an adamant person. For example, after leaving America once he never returned to America throughout his life. Similarly with this painting Whistler agreed never to “play” soldier again. Maybe the fall of Valparaiso and his apparent helplessness only added to this notion but it is undeniable that Whistler refrained from any military affiliation or activity after this point in time. Other than the persona, this painting represents the first nocturne created by Whistler and this new pursuit allowed Whistler to escape his internal struggles with the help of a brush and canvas. Whistler’s Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso is undeniably an unappreciated jewel. The painting reveals a large amount about the artist’s internal struggles and thoughts while also reflecting on his techniques and their origination and growth. In terms of the art world, this painting represents a watershed that was about to redefine the way people painted. Figure 1 - Crepuscule in Flesh Color and Green: Valparaiso and the interface of the sky and the sea Figure 2 - La Princesse Figure 3 - The Morning after the Revolution: Valparaiso Figure 4 - Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso Bibliography American Attitude. Whsitler and his Followers. 2011. http://www.dia.org/exhibitions/whistlersite/imagegallery.htm (accessed November 4, 2011). Anderson, Ronald, and and Anne Koval. James McNeill Whistler: Beyond the Myth. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1994. AT Archive. James Abott McNeill Whistler. 2011. http://www.artchive.com/artchive/W/whistler.html (accessed November 4, 2011). Fattal, Laura Felleman, and Carol Salus. Out of Context: American Artists Abroad. Connecticut: Praeger, 2004. Pennel, J. The Life of James McNeill Whistler. London: Forgotten Books, 2010. Peters, Lisa N. James McNeill Whistler. New York: Smithmark, 1996. Spencer, Robin. Whistler: A Retrospective. New York: Wings Books, 1989. Townsend, Joyce. Analysis Report, Tate conservation record N05065. Analysis, London: Tate, 1993. Read More