James Abbot MacNeill Whistler was born in 1834 in the US, but when he was 21 he came to Europe to paint. He lived in Paris and in London, visited Venice and Amsterdam and other cities and painted a few of the most beautiful paintings ever. He was friends with artists like Edouard Manet and Oscar Wilde, but he also made enemies like art critic John Ruskin.
I first heard of Whistler when I was watching the series
The House of Elliot. This beautiful BBC series from the nineties is set in the twenties. It is the story of two sisters, Bea and Evie, who started a fashion house. They based their first collection of evening gowns on the
Nocture paintings by Whistler. I was fascinated and looked him up, and I fell in love with his paintings. Here are a few of his
Nocturnes.
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| One of the eveningogwns in The House of Elliot |
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| Nocturne in blue and silver |
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| Nocturne in blue and gold |
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| Nocturne, the Solent |
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| Nocturne in blue and silver |
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My own Whistler-moment, the photograph I took from the lake
and somehow it turned out like this. |
I'm with you on Whistler's nocturnes; they are beautiful paintings...definitely more appealing to me than the painting of his mother! (And I love the House of Elliott! What a great series.)
ReplyDeleteThe house of Elliot was great! And although Whistlers portrait of his mother is one of his best-known works, it is also not my favorite.
DeleteKind regards,