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Customer Reviews (3)

Breath...
This book is an elegant representation of works using paint sparingly....or seemingly so.....the essence is represented....a Beautiful Book.

art
If you like Whistler you will like this book. After I got my Turner book I was more interested in it and didn't finish this book.

stunning
The often ignored "Tonalist" movement finally gets its due in this exquisite catalogue of what must be a remarkable exhibition. The reproductions are beautifully controlled (thank goodness for modern printing technology) and broadly selected. There are a few nice surprises (Crane, Steichen!!, and Carlsen stand out), along with the expected Whistler, Twachtman, and Inness. The inclusion of a section on American lyrical abstraction was also a nice linkage. For any serious collector of art books this tome is an essential. ... Read more

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This gorgeously illustrated book tells the history of the Peacock Room, decorated by James McNeill Whistler for wealthy London shipowner Frederick Leyland and currently on display at the Freer Gallery of Art. The history offers fascinating insights into nineteenth-century British culture-taste, patronage, attitudes toward Asian art, origins of art nouveau, and relation to American culture.

Copublished with the Freer Gallery of Art,Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Whistler's Aesthetic Interior
"Remember," wrote the British art critic John Ruskin in 1853, "that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance." When a peacock unfolds its plumage,the eyespots on its feathers form exact logarithmic spirals, like those ina daisy, a pinecone, and a sunflower. Twenty years later, Ruskin's remarkinspired the Aesthetic Movement ("Art for art's sake"), of whichthe chief proponents were the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde and the Americanpainter James A.M. Whistler. Wilde sometimes wore a sunflower in his lapel;and Whistler, as is documented in this thoroughly researched and richlyillustrated volume (with 250 illustrations, nearly half in color), createdan opulent dining room for London businessman Frederick Leyland, withpeacocks as the main motif. Completed amid controversy in 1877, Harmony inBlue and Gold: The Peacock Room was dismantled and sold after Leyland'sdeath, and, in 1923, reconstructed in the U.S. at the Freer Gallery of Art,a branch of the Smithsonian Institution, where it remains on view. A keyevent in design history, it was restored physically in 1989 through 1992;and now this book restores it historically, thereby "dispelling someof the myths and misconceptions that had settled over the story likemantles of aging varnish." As a cultural biography, the book'sgreatest virtue is its breadth of focus: Just as Whistler's interior servedas an elaborate setting for Leyland's Chinese porcelain collection, Merrillprovides a rich wide factual setting for the Peacock Room. (Copyright © byRoy R. Behrens from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 14 No. 3, Spring 1999.)

incisive view into the life style of Frederick Leyland
This is an erudite investigation into the life styles of both Whistler and his patron Frederick Richards Leyland.Whilst being essentiallyan art book, it deals with its subject matter in a lively mannner which could wellform the basis of a movie script. ... Read more

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As the art world gears up for the 100th anniversary of Whistler's death, "a sparkling narrative that gives us a very intimate account of the artist's life."-Hilton Kramer, New York Times Book Review.

He was the most notorious and misunderstood American artist of his time, and also the most influential. To this day James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) is one of the most recognized names in painting because of his celebrated (and endlessly satirized) Whistler's Mother, one of the treasures of the Louvre. He was, to say the least, a character. Born in Massachusetts, he claimed to be a Southerner and wound up living most of his life abroad-in Russia, France, and England (though he could not tolerate more than brief periods in France and thoroughly disliked the English). Whistler's sense of belligerent alienation erupted in ways that were endlessly fascinating to both Europeans and Americans. His insatiable urge to take his grievances to court (including literary and artistic grievances); his feuds and vendettas with such worthies as Ruskin, Wilde, and Beardsley; his acid wit and libelous invective; his ability to set fashions in art, dress, even lifestyle; his love affairs and relentless social climbing-his was a flamboyant life, told here "with clarity, judgment, and liveliness" (Leon Edel). ... Read more

Product Description
Another title from The Crown Art Library, the most useful monographs available on a wide range of significant artists. Each volume is written by an internationally recognized authority and is generously illustrated with full-color reproductions of the artist's paintings and two-color reproductions of sketches and line drawings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great overview of Whistler's work
This is a wonderful book! There are 79 reproductions, the pictures are good quality, and color works are reproduced in color (etchings are black & white, as were the originals). There are examples of works from through-out Wistler's life, as well as all the different media he used. The text seems useful and descriptive, and the bibliography is extensive. I suppose the only complaint could be the size of the book (about 11" X 8"), but since many of Whistler's works are modest in size to begin with, I really don't find it to be a problem. Most of the pictures are half- or full-page, and the color balance seems true to my eye. Overall, for a concise,and reasonably compact book on Whistler, you couldn't do better! ... Read more