James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
74 1/8 x 36 1/4 in. (188.3 x 92.1 cm)
Classification
Painting
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of William H. Walker, 1918
Accession Number
18.22.2
Tags
About this artwork
William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) created this monumental portrait of James Abbott McNeill Whistler in 1885, resulting in both a masterful painting and a fractured friendship. Measuring 74⅛ by 36¼ inches, the oil on canvas depicts "the public Whistler" in full-length format during Chase's London visit while en route to Madrid. Whistler urged Chase to stay the summer so they could paint each other's portraits, but the collaboration ended disastrously. Chase adopted Whistler's characteristic style...
Art Historical Context
In 1885, American artist William Merritt Chase painted this striking full-length portrait of fellow expatriate James Abbott McNeill Whistler during a visit to London. Measuring an imposing 74⅛ by 36¼ inches in oil on canvas, the captures the "public Whistler"—elegant, elongated, and enigmatic—against a subdued, ambiguously spaced background. What began as an exciting artistic exchange, with the two planning mutual portraits over a London summer, ended in rupture: Whistler deemed Chase's homage a "monstrous lampoon," and his own unfinished portrait of Chase was never shown. Chase masterfully a...
About the Artist
William Merritt Chase
Prolific painter of portraits, interiors, still lifes and landscapes, famed for establishing the fresh colour and bravura technique used in much early 20th-century American painting. He was considered the most important American teacher of his time; after teaching at the Art Students League of NY he formed the Chase School of Art in 1896. Comment on works: genre, Portraits