James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland, 1871–74, oil on canvas, The Frick Collection
Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink:
Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland
For the wife of his chief patron of the 1870s, Whistler
created an Aesthetic masterpiece in which subject and
setting form one harmonious visual field. The gossamer
fabrics of Frances Leyland’s gown, which Whistler himself designed, seem to dissolve into a formless
passage of paint at the bottom of the picture. Flouting the rules of one-point perspective, Whistler paints the
checkered rug and parquet floor with squares that lie
flat against the picture plane, rather than receding into
space. As a result, they correspond with the incised
basket-weave pattern of the frame, which Whistler also
designed. The picture is a perfect synthesis of subject,
costume, setting, and frame.
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