James Abbott McNeill Whistler Quotes about Art

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was a famous American painter and portrait artist associated with the Tonalism art movement. He is best known for his portraits and landscapes that looked to music for inspiration. Famous James McNeill Whistler artworks include “Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl”, “Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge”, “Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 (Whistler’s Mother)”, “Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket”, “Symphony in White No. 2 (The Little White Girl)”, “The Princess from the Land of Porcelain”, “Nocturne in Gray and Gold, Westminster Bridge”, “Harmony in Blue and Gold – The Little Blue Girl”, and “The Peacock Room”.

Mini biography: Born James Abbott McNeill Whistler on the 10th of July, 1834 in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States of America. His mother was Anna Matilda and his father George Washington Whistler was a prominent civil engineer. Whistler married Beatrice Godwin in 1888. The artist died on the 17th of July, 1903 in London, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain at the age of 69. James McNeill Whistler is buried at the Old Chiswick Cemetery in Chiswick, London Borough of Hounslow, Greater London, England, UK.

List of Famous James McNeill Whistler Art Quotes

Why should not I call my works ‘symphonies’, ‘arrangements’, ‘harmonies’, and ‘nocturnes’? The vast majority of English folk cannot and will not consider a picture as a picture, apart from any story which it may be supposed to tell. James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Art should be independent of all claptrap — should stand alone, and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism, and the like. All these have no kind of concern with it; and that is why I insist on calling my works ‘arrangements’ and ‘harmonies.’ James Abbott McNeill Whistler

If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond this: in portrait painting to put on canvas something more than the face the model wears for that one day: to paint the man, in short, as well as his features; in arrangement of colors to treat a flower as his key, not as his model. James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Nature contains the elements, in color and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music. But the artist is born to pick, and choose, and group with science, these elements, that the result may be beautiful—as the musician gathers his notes, and forms his chords, until he bring forth from chaos glorious harmony. To say to the painter, that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player, that he may sit on the piano. James Abbott McNeill Whistler

I care nothing for the past, present, or future of the black figure, placed there because the black was wanted at that spot. All that I know is that my combination of grey and gold is the basis of the picture, Now this is precisely what my friends cannot grasp. James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Art is a goddess of dainty thought, reticent of habit, abjuring all obtrusiveness, purposing in no way to better others. She is, withal selfishly occupied with her own perfection only — having no desire to teach. James Abbott McNeill Whistler

That Nature is always right, is an assertion, artistically, as untrue, as it is one whose truth is universally taken for granted. Nature is very rarely right, to such an extent even, that it might almost be said that Nature is usually wrong: that is to say, the condition of things that shall bring about the perfection of harmony worthy a picture is rare, and not common at all. James Abbott McNeill Whistler

James McNeill Whistler Self-Portrait Painting

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