Whistler was one of the most influential and controversial artists of the nineteenth century. He was also a fervent advocate of the idea that art need not serve a moral, social or political purpose, but exists purely for its own beauty.
Dandy and disruptor
Born in the United States, Whistler moved to Paris aged twenty-one and divided his time between Paris and London for nearly fifty years, moving in the circles of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet and Oscar Wilde. He was a master of self-promotion and an outspoken dandy with exquisite taste, acutely aware of his striking presence, and notoriously quarrelsome.
He fiercely defended his artistic vision, even at the cost of bankruptcy. When the critic John Ruskin described his work as like flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face, Whistler sued him for libel – a watershed in art history. He published an account of his many disputes under the revealing title The Gentle Art of Making Enemies. The influential English art critic Roger Fry aptly summarised his attitude:
‘He seemed to be always inaugurating a revolution, leading intransigent youth against the strongholds of tradition and academic complacence.’
Two exhibitions, one story
In the exhibition Whistler. Dandy and Disruptor, the Van Gogh Museum presents a major retrospective of some 100 works, including one of his most famous paintings: Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother. The exhibition also includes dreamlike nocturnes of the Thames, works from the series White Girls and life-sized society portraits.
In the exhibition Whistler. Loving the Netherlands, The Mesdag Collection focuses on Whistler’s special relationship with the country: the art he produced there – including the famous series of Amsterdam etchings – and his influence on Dutch artists such as Willem Witsen and George Hendrik Breitner.
Whistler had frequent contact with Hendrik Willem Mesdag and visited The Mesdag Collection on his last day in the Netherlands, making The Hague the ideal location for this focus exhibition.