“ Arrangement in Gray and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle” ( Eng. Arrangement in Gray and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle ) is a painting by American artist James Whistler, written in 1872-1873. It depicts a Scottish critic , philosopher and historian Thomas Carlyle . The portrait is made in the same style as the painting " Whistler's Mother ", created a year earlier. It is kept by the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow , Scotland [1] .
| ||
| James whistler | ||
| Arrangement in gray and black No. 2: portrait of Thomas Carlyle . 1872-1873 | ||
| English Arrangement in Gray and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle | ||
| Oil on canvas . 171 × 143.5 cm | ||
| Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum , Glasgow | ||
| ( inv. 671 ) | ||
Content
History
By the time the picture was written, Thomas Carlyle had been living in the Chelsea area of London for 47 years and was one of its most famous residents. He lived on Chain Row, house number 24 (now it is the Carlyle House Museum ) next to Lindsey House , now Cheyne-Walk, house number 96, where Whistler had a studio [2] [3] . Once, visiting Whistler’s workshop, accompanied by their mutual friend, Carlyle saw a portrait of the artist’s mother and, according to Whistler, “he liked the uncomplicated picture in which the elderly woman sat with her hands folded in her lap and said that he would like to be painted [in such same manner]. And one day early in the morning he came, sat down, and I had my canvas, brushes and palette ready, and Carlyle said: “Come on, sculpt!” [4] .
Although Whistler initially requested two or three sessions, Carlyle posed from 1872 until the summer of 1873 [5] . According to eyewitnesses, Carlyle's stillness was combined with Whistler's frantic body movements, and artist Hugh Cameron recalled: “It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. Carlyle sat motionless, like a pagan God or an oriental sage, and Whistler jumped like a sparrow ” [5] .
Years later, Whistler wrote about Carlyle [6] :
| He is my favorite client [model]. I like his gentle sadness! - perhaps he is even much more sensitive, and is not fully understood, but who knows! |
Whistler’s mention of sadness and feelings of “experience” in Thomas’s characterization probably reflected Carlyle’s state in the late period of his life after the death of his wife Jane Welch Carlyle in 1866 [5] . Posing, Carlyle wrote in his diary: “All the sides of this miserable, gradually deceiving deceitful world seem to me more and more dreary, barren, low and ugly” [5] .
In 1891, the painting “Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle ” became the artist’s first work, which was included in the public collection, being purchased, at the insistence of the Glasgow school , the city of Glasgow [7] .
Description
The painting shows Thomas Carlyle sitting in profile on a chair. With his right hand he rests on a cane, holds a glove in his left hand, a coat and a hat lie on his lap. As a background for the portrait, Whistler chose a plain-looking room, with two blurry paintings on the wall [9] [10] [11] . In general, the composition of the picture with the figure sitting in profile, in dark colors, is similar to the composition of the painting "Whistler's Mother". Whistler portrayed an outstanding philosopher of his time, paying much attention to the nuances of form and color [5] .
Four preparatory oil sketches and several sketches of the portrait [5] [2] , which are stored in the Freer Art Gallery , have been preserved, based on which it was concluded that although Whistler created a composition similar to the picture of his mother, he nevertheless considered others options. For example, in one chalk sketch, Carlyle is depicted sitting at an angle to a wall with no coat on his lap. But, in the end, Whistler returned to a flat composition and included a coat that created a wider shape, resembling a dress from a mother’s composition [2] . The canvas is slightly larger ( 171 × 143.5 cm ) than the portrait of Mrs. Whistler ( 144.3 × 162.4 cm ) and has a vertical format. A number of other differences include a different turn of Carlyle's head toward the viewer and a shape caused by the folds of a coat on the floor. Due to this, the picture looks more dynamic than the static pose in the portrait of his mother [5] .
Notes
- ↑ David Peters Corbett, Lara Perry. English Art, 1860-1914: Modern Artists and Identity . - Manchester University Press, 2000 .-- 296 p. - ISBN 9780719055201 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 Curry, 1984 , p. 247.
- ↑ Dorment, 1994 , p. 143.
- ↑ Dorment, 1994 , p. 143-144.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dorment, 1994 , p. 144.
- ↑ Spencer, 1993 , p. 84.
- ↑ Spencer, 1993 , p. 37.
- ↑ Still relevant after all these years The Baltimore Sun, March 16, 1997
- ↑ The Connoisseur . - Hearst Corporation, 1916. - 398 p.
- ↑ M. Middeke, Christina Wald. The Literature of Melancholia: Early Modern to Postmodern . - Springer, 2011-11-18. - 279 p. - ISBN 9780230336988 .
- ↑ Stanley Weintraub. Whistler: a biography . - Weybright and Talley, 1974.- 534 p. - ISBN 9780679400998 .
- ↑ Merrill, Linda. After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting , p. 28. High Museum of Art, 2003.
Literature
- Curry, David Park. James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art. - New York: WW Norton & Company, Inc., 1984. - ISBN 0-393-01847-4 .
- Dorment, Richard, MacDonald, Margaret F., et al. Whistler - London: Tate Gallery, 1994. - ISBN 0-89468-212-1 .
- Spencer, Robin. Whistler - London: Studio Editions, 1993. - ISBN 1-85170-904-5 .
- Peters, Lisa N. James McNeill Whistler. - New York: Smithmark, 1996 .-- ISBN 9781880908709 .