Whistler on Exhibition

In September 1879 Whistler went to Venice to work on a set of etchings for the Fine Art Society in London. He found subjects among the decaying palaces and back canals, producing about fifty etchings, seven or eight paintings, and a hundred pastels of exquisite precision and vibrant color. The twelve etchings made for the Fine Art Society were exhibited in London in December 1880. In January he showed fifty-three pastels of Venice (see Pls. XI, XIV), and in February 1883 he had a further exhibition of fifty-one etchings, mostly of Venice, at the society.

At the Dowdeswell Gallery on New Bond Street in London in 1884 and 1886, and at the Wunderlich Gallery in New York City in 1889, Whistler exhibited oils, watercolors, pastels, and drawings in an exhibition entitled 'Notes' - 'Hannonies' - 'Nocturnes.' In March 1892 the Goupil Gallery in London held a retrospective exhibition of forty-three oils entitled Nocturnes, Marines, and Chevalet Pieces, and in December 1895 the Fine Art Society showed seventy-five of his lithographs - the only medium previously unrepresented in exhibitions.

For all of these exhibitions Whistler insisted that everything be in harmony. He decorated the galleries; specified how the pictures should be mounted, framed, and hung; and designed the catalogues. The etchings of Venice shown in 1883 were exhibited in a startling setting of white and yellow. The exhibition of pastels in 1881 was described as follows by the English architect and designer Edward William Godwin (1833-1886):

First a low skirting of yellow gold, then a high dado of dull yellow green cloth, then a moulding of green gold, and then a frieze and ceiling of pale reddish brown. The frames are arranged on "the line, "but here and there one is placed over another. Most of the frames and mounts are of rich yellow gold, but a dozen out of the fifty-three are in green gold.(19)

The show was a critical success. Indeed, Godwin wrote, "Mr. Whistler fears his pastels are not so good as he supposed - for they are selling."(20) The expense of mounting the exhibition ultimately became a matter of dispute, and Whistler refused to pay for the attendant: "I shall neither pay for the man - nor his socks, nor his hose, nor anything that is his."(21)

For the 1884 exhibition Whistler redecorated the Dowdeswell Gallery as an "Arrangement in Fleshcolour and Grey." His attention to detail extended to affixing a pink butterfly applique to the valance of the mantelpiece. The pictures, mostly small oils and watercolors, appeared to advantage against the soft colors. Nocturne in grey and gold - Piccadilly (Pl. XIII), for example, was described by the London Kensington News as "one of the most enchanting little atmospheric gems one could well desire to possess."(22)

In 1886 for the first time pastels and watercolors outnumbered oils in his exhibition at the Dowdeswell Gallery. That same year Whistler accepted the presidency of the ultra-respectable Society of British Artists in London. On the society's behalf he sent an illuminated address to Queen Victoria in 1887 congratulating her on her Golden Jubilee, and obtained for the society the title "Royal," much to the members' delight. However, he ruthlessly primed their exhibitions, redecorated the galleries, hung a velarium to diffuse the light and direct it at the pictures, and broadened the membership. Artists such as Claude Monet (1840-1926) and the Belgian Alfred Stevens (1823-1906) were invited to exhibit. Monet warned Whistler that the members might object, which indeed they did, and in 1888 Whistler was forced to resign.