Includes bibliographical references (pages 115-118) and index. Published to accompany the exhibition "Whistler and Nature" held at Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park, 20 October-16 December 2018; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 8 January-17 March 2019; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 30 March-16 June 2019; The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, Spring 2020.
Contents:
Foreword / Steven Parissien -- James McNeill Whistler and his circle / Patricia de Montfort -- Whistler and the productive landscape / Patricia de Montfort -- Nature on the margins: parks, gardens and coasts in Whistler's work of the 1880s and 1890s / Clare A. P. Willsdon.
Summary:
This innovative and compelling study reconsiders Whistler's work from the context of his military service and his relationship with nature at the margins. Whistler came from a family of soldiers and engineers; his father, Major George Washington Whistler, was originally a US military engineer. Drawing and mapmaking were important components of the military training that Whistler acquired as an officer cadet at West Point Academy in 1851-4 and subsequently in the Drawing Department at the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, where he attempted to realise his father's hopes that he would make engineering or architecture his profession. These influences in turn shaped Whistler's attitude towards nature, as expressed in works ranging from his celebrated London Nocturnes to his French coastal scenes all of which were created after Whistler moved permanently to Europe in 1855.
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