Arrangement in Flesh Color and Brown: Portrait of Arthur Jerome Eddy
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
210.7 × 93.3 cm (82 15/16 × 36 3/4 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
8958
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
James McNeill Whistler created thinly painted compositions with flat, nearly abstract passages, purposefully subtle in character. He called works such as this one an “arrangement,” emphasizing formal elements rather than subject matter. The painting still serves as a portrait—it was commissioned by Chicago attorney Arthur Jerome Eddy, a collector and advocate of modern art. After seeing Whistler’s work at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in the city, Eddy traveled to the artist’s studio in ...
About the Artist
James McNeill Whistler · 1834–1903
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was an American-born painter and printmaker who became a leading figure in the Aesthetic Movement and pioneer of Tonalism and Japonisme. He revolutionized art by championing "art for art's sake" and treating paintings as visual equivalents of musical compositions, titling works as "arrangements," "harmonies," and "nocturnes" to emphasize formal qualities o...