Portraits, Pastels, Prints: Whistler in The Frick Collection
June 2 through August 23, 2009
Pastels | Etchings
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The Cemetery, 1879
Pastel on brown paper |
This sheet, made early on in Whistler’s stay
in Venice, features the cemetery island and
church of San Michele in the brilliant light
of day. With a heavy application of pastel,
the artist renders the gleaming marble of the Renaissance structure, the cypress
trees within the cemetery walls, and the
canopied funeral boat at left. Short strokes
and zigzagging lines make up their vivid
reflections in the rippling water. Whistler
probably sketched the scene aboard
a gondola.
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Venetian Canal, 1880
Pastel on brown paper |
Here Whistler employs the spare handling of the pastel medium he developed in
Venice. He leaves exposed much of the coarse brown paper and lightly rubs pastel
over it to suggest the crumbling white
stucco on the brick walls. He reserves deep
tones for the window shutters, trees, empty gondolas, and shadowy water. The single
figure on the bridge lends a human presence
to this quiet scene.
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Nocturne: Venice, 1880
Pastel on brown paper |
In this view of the island of La Giudecca
at dusk, the boats moored to the quay in
the foreground are represented through
massed lines, rather than defined contours.
Whistler indicates the sky’s fading light with
three shades of blue, adding thick touches
of yellow pastel to suggest the reflection of
lamplight on the canal’s glassy waters.
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