Whistler Pastels at The Hunterian
25th January 2008
- 17th April 2008
This display of pastels from the Hunterian's Whistler collection complements the exhibition, 'A Victorian Master: Drawings by Frederic Lord Leighton.'
Whistler and Leighton were near contemporaries and moved in similar artistic circles in London, but their artistic goals were substantially different, as their drawings illustrate. Whistler's impressionistic technique was in marked contrast to the immaculate precision of Leighton's studies. This is best seen in his pastels, in which form and texture are suggested not described, with sparingly applied touches of pigment.
Whistler's training as a draughtsman was not that of a conventional British art student, who was required to undertake years of meticulous and time-consuming study of shading and line, ornament and plaster casts. His experience was sporadic and varied - as a child in Russia at St Petersburg's Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, at West Point Military Academy and the American Coast and Geodetic Survey, and finally at the Paris studio of Charles Gleyre. But Whistler fully appreciated its importance, writing to his artist-friend Fantin-Latour, 'guided by her master - drawing - colour is a good servant - but combined with uncertain, feeble drawing, inaccurate and easily satisfied, colour is an idiot. You know what that leads to, confusion, tricks, mistakes, work incomplete'.
Whistler was accomplished in a range of media and created works which were suggestive rather then descriptive. As such they puzzled many critics of the time, who found them 'slight' or unfinished, in contrast to the reception given to Leighton's exhibition compositions. The group on display focuses on Whistler's pastel drawings, in which his draughtsmanship is at its most expressive, the use of colour restrained and sensitive, and his subject one of his most enduring - the graceful female model in the studio.
The exhibition will be closed from 21 - 24 March 2008 for the Easter holiday.
Hunterian Art Gallery
82 Hillhead Street
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ
www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk
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