詹姆斯·阿博特·麦克尼尔·惠斯勒是十九世纪的美国画家。他的绘画理念是“人像画的是谁并不重要，重要的是表现的内容”。《惠斯勒的母亲》（Whistler's Mother）画面中的的空气，似乎凝结在母亲黑色的长衣周围，观众的视线被强烈的压抑，而在双脚的浅色踏板处，寻到一处可以舒坦的空间。延伸到地板上的浅色调，使坐着的女人显得更为高贵，令人尊敬。侧坐的老妇，从美好的轮廓线条，依稀可以见到她曾经拥有的青春美貌；轻盈的白色蕾丝头纱和袖口花边，自然成为一种永恒的温柔象征。
侧坐的老妇，从美好的轮廓线条，依稀可以见到她曾经拥有的青春美貌；轻盈的白色蕾丝头纱和袖口花边，自然成为一种永恒的温柔象征。在巴黎奥塞美术馆展 览室面对着《惠斯勒的母亲》，著实也感染到惠斯勒画笔的音乐流动倾向，块状和线条合奏的和谐画面，产生了室内乐的悠缓情调。画面左边的缀花黑色布幔，非常冷默的形成大波浪的直流；墙上的黑框风景画，概括了妇人的回忆。
《惠斯勒的母亲》的空气，似乎凝结在母亲黑色的长衣周围，观众的视线被强烈的压抑，而在双脚的浅色踏板处，寻到一处可以舒坦的空间。延伸到地板上的浅色调，使坐着的女人显得更为高贵，令人尊敬。惠斯勒曾经提醒他的朋友：人像画的是谁并不重要，重要的是表现的内容。
有另一个题目叫做“灰和黑的安排”，由巴黎奥塞博物馆收藏惠斯勒倡导的印象主义与该时期欧洲兴起的印象主义风格并不一致，他在艺术中，并不抛弃传统，亦不拘泥于传统。他力图追寻各种技法和效果的创造和革新。例如：他的早期的交响曲系列作品就试图用色彩的和谐来表达音乐的旋律。70年代是惠斯勒艺术生涯的顶峰，这幅《惠斯勒的母亲》便是这时期的代表作。这里，造型、结构和形式统统服从于对色彩和谐的追求。而这种色彩和谐则是在表现画面的诗意和神秘感。艺术家在这里创造了诗与音乐的优美意境。他后来的这种创作方法甚至已象东方画家那样重神韵，而非实物描画了。这种绘画风格在欧洲遭到非难。1877年在伦敦展出作品的时候，他的一幅作品遭到著名评论家罗斯金的攻击，惠斯勒以诽谤罪向法院起诉，罗斯金的代理人在法庭上问：“两天画成的作品也要200金币”？回答是：“我要的是我终身学识的报酬”。至今仍为艺术界的佳话。多少歌颂慈母的名画，都比不上惠斯勒所营造的无边的宁静和寂寞。
一八七二年，当这一位出生美国麻州的艺术家，把这一张画送到伦敦艺术学院展览，不料遭到了落选的命运；直到一八八三年，才在法国艺术沙龙得到肯定。巴黎奥塞美术馆的开馆，致使许多沉埋而郁郁不得志的十九世纪绘画获得平反，惠斯勒的《惠斯勒的母亲》是其中的一件。它从罗浮宫拥挤而阴暗的楼梯旁边，移到宽敞的奥塞美术馆，母亲的容颜，经过了环境的变迁，依然沉着不变！
惠斯勒（1834～1903）Whistler，James McNeill：美国画家。1834年7月14日生于马萨诸塞州洛厄尔，1903年7月17日卒于英国伦敦。早年进过西点军校，也作过测绘制图员，后接受白描和铜版画训练。1855年去巴黎，再未回到美国。在法国曾和青年画家H.方丹 -拉图尔及A.勒格罗组成三人团。1859年定居英国。绘画风格受D.委拉斯贵支影响。代表作《在钢琴旁》、《白衣女郎》曾引起轰动。晚年作品追求东方趣味，画中少女常穿日本和服并摆上几件中国瓷器。1892年他的作品回顾展，使他得到美国公众承认，认为他是偶然住在英国的美国画家，而英国又选他担任不列颠美术家协会主席，不久法国也授予他荣誉军团骑士称号。作品还有铜版画《法国组画》、肖像画《母亲》及组画《泰晤士河》等。
惠斯勒3岁时，父亲退役，担任修筑西部铁路的筑路工程师，全家迁往康涅狄克州的斯托宁顿居住。1841年，应沙皇尼古拉一世之聘，他的父亲到俄国去为修建彼得堡至莫斯科的铁路工作，全家又搬到了被得堡。1849年，惠斯勒的父亲在俄国病逝，母亲举家迁回美国的斯托宁顿。1851年，惠斯勒遵从母亲希望他继承父志的要求，考入美国著名的军事院校——西点军校。但由于纪律松懈，在3年级时被学校斥退。他曾经要求陆军部长杰弗逊·戴维斯帮助他复学，但戴维斯介绍他去地图处处长本海姆那里报到。这位上尉发现了他的绘画才能，在1854年雇用了他。可是，画地图和画画到底是两码事，本海姆很快发现了使他头痛的事情，几乎每一张经过惠斯勒之手的地图，在空隙里都画满了奇形怪状的人头和动物。他不得不将这位年轻人解雇。据说，惠斯勒在他的手下总共工作了12小时15分钟.1855年夏天， 惠斯勒终于得到了赴巴黎学习绘画的机会，他在格莱尔的画室中学习素描和油画， 并且到卢佛宫临摹古画。1858年夏季，他环游法国，以异国人的眼光画成了一组铜版画《法兰西组画》，很受时人欢迎。后来，他和亨利·拉——方丹一起，参加了库尔贝领导的青年画家小组，开始与印象派画家莫奈等人交往。1859年，他的毕业作品《钢琴旁》被沙龙所拒绝，愤而离开法国，出走伦敦。此后，他的画便同音乐标题结合在一起。例如《母亲的肖像》被称为《灰与黑的协奏曲》， 《白衣少女》被加上《白色交响乐》的副题等等。这一幅《玫瑰与银：产瓷目的公主》，也有一个《玫瑰与银色的交响乐》的名字。惠斯勒这样做，旨在强调对色彩与音乐之间的联想。同时，他对日本浮世绘和屏风画的装饰化手法也深感兴趣。在这幅画中，模特儿被披上不伦不类的“和服”，手持执扇，意在追求日本美人画的风格。地毯、屏风上的图案也充满中国风格，还有一只东方花瓶，点出了“产瓷国的公主”这个主题。
惠斯勒狂放不羁的性格在年事渐高之后稍有收敛。1872年他为利物浦的船主莱兰作家庭肖像和室内壁画，他拖延时间，迫使莱兰一再增加报酬，莱兰和画家之间的对话，由于惠斯勒的幽默机警而一时传为美谈。最后，莱兰付出了两倍的酬金才使惠斯勒完成了壁画。
1875年他同著名评论家约翰·拉斯金的官司也是世界画史上的佳话。拉斯金和作家王尔德一起参观一个有惠斯勒作品的重要画展，对画家所作的《泰晤士河上散落的烟火：黑和金的小夜曲》一画颇为不满。这是一幅在黑色地子上洒满不规则色点的油画，拉斯金认为：“把颜料罐打翻在画布上还要观众付钱，实在是一种欺骗”。惠斯勒以侮辱名誉的罪名向伦敦白区法院控告了拉斯金，法庭判处拉斯金有罪，但只须支付十便士的罚款。这个幽默的玩笑，调解了两位著名文人的争吵，但惠斯勒却为支付一半的诉讼费而囊空如洗。
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James abbott McNeill whistler was an American painter of the nineteenth century. His philosophy was that "it doesn't matter who the portrait is, it matters what it says". The air in the picture of "Whistler's Mother" seems to condense around the Mother's long black dress. The audience's sight is strongly suppressed, while the light pedal of the feet finds a comfortable space. The light tones that extend to the floor enhance the dignity and respect of the seated woman. The old lady sitting on the side, from the fine outline line, you can faintly see the youth and beauty she once had; Light white lace veil and cuff lace, naturally become a gentle symbol of eternity.
The old lady sitting on the side, from the fine outline line, you can faintly see the youth and beauty she once had; Light white lace veil and cuff lace, naturally become a gentle symbol of eternity. Facing whistler's mother in the exhibition room of the musume d 'orsay in Paris, whistler's music flowing tendency, the harmonious picture of block and line ensemble, produces the leisurely atmosphere of chamber music. The black drapery on the left side of the picture is very cold and silent. The black-framed landscape on the wall sums up the woman's memories.
"Whistler's mother" air, seems to condense around the mother's long black dress, the audience's line of sight is strongly depressed, and in the light pedal of the feet, to find a comfortable space. The light tones that extend to the floor enhance the dignity and respect of the seated woman. Whistler once reminded his friends that it wasn't who the portrait was, it was what it said that mattered.
There is another title called "the arrangement of grey and black". Whistler's impressionism advocated by the musee d 'orsay in Paris is not consistent with the impressionism style emerging in Europe during this period. He tried to pursue the creation and innovation of various techniques and effects. For example, his early symphonies tried to express the melody of music with the harmony of colors. The 1970s was the peak of whistler's artistic career, and this painting whistler's mother is a representative work of this period. Here, shape, structure and form are all subject to the pursuit of color harmony. And this kind of color harmony is to show the poetic and mysterious sense of the picture. The artist created the poem here with the beautiful artistic conception of music. This method of his later work has even been described with more emphasis on spirit than substance, as in the eastern painters. This style of painting was condemned in Europe. When his works were exhibited in London in 1877, one of his works was attacked by the famous critic ruskin. Whistler sued the court for defamation. The answer was, "I want the reward of my life's learning." It is still a story in the art world. Whistler's boundless peace and solitude are not compared with the many famous paintings that celebrate mothers.
In 1872, when the massachusett-born artist sent it to the London academy of art for exhibition, it was rejected. It wasn't until 1883 that it was recognized in French art salons. Whistler's "whistler's mother" is one of the many buried and unhappy 19th-century paintings to be rehabilitated by the opening of the musee d 'orsay in Paris. It moved from the crowded and dark stairs of the Louvre to the spacious musee d 'orsay.
Whistler (1834 ~ 1903) Whistler, James McNeill: American painter. He was born in Lowell, Massachusetts on July 14, 1834 and died in London, England on July 17, 1903. In his early years, he entered west point military academy and also worked as a surveying and mapping cartographer. He went to Paris in 1855 and never returned to the United States. In France he formed A trio with the young painters h. fontaine latour and a. legro. He settled in England in 1859. The painting style was influenced by d. velazquez. Her masterpieces "by the piano" and "the lady in white" have caused a sensation. In his later years, his works pursued Oriental interests. In the paintings, young girls often wore Japanese kimono and put on several pieces of Chinese porcelain. A retrospective of his work in 1892 allowed him to be recognized by the American public as an American painter who happened to live in England, and the British elected him President of the British artists' association, and soon France made him a knight of the legion of honor. His works include etchings French group painting, portrait painting mother and group painting Thames.
When whistler was three, his father retired as a road engineer building the western railroad, and the family moved to stornington, Connecticut. In 1841, on the appointment of tsar Nicholas I, his father went to Russia to work on the railway from Petersburg to Moscow, and the family moved to fort dudeburg. Whistler's father died in Russia in 1849, and his mother moved the family back to stornington, USA. In 1851, whistler complied with his mother's request that he follow his father's dream and was admitted to west point, a famous military academy in the United States. But because of lax discipline, he was dismissed from school in the third grade. He had asked Jefferson Davis, the secretary of the army, to help him return to school, but Davis referred him to benheim, the director of the department of maps. The captain discovered his talent for painting and hired him in 1854. But drawing a map was not the same thing as drawing a picture, and bennheim soon found out what was bothering him. Nearly every map that passed whistler's hand was filled with grotesque heads and animals in the gaps. He had to dismiss the young man. In the summer of 1855, whistler finally got a chance to study painting in Paris, studying drawing and painting in greer's studio, and painting at the Louvre. In the summer of 1858, he traveled around France and painted a group of etchings called the group of paintings of France with the eyes of foreign people, which was very popular at that time. Later, with henri la fontaine, he joined courbet's group of young painters and began associating with impressionists like monet. In 1859, his graduation work by the piano was rejected by salon, so he left France and left London in anger. Since then, his paintings have been combined with the music title. For example, the portrait of a mother is called the concerto of grey and black, and the girl in white is subtitled with the symphony of white. This one, rose and silver: the princess of porcelain, also has the title of a symphony of roses and silver. Whistler did this to emphasize the association between color and music. At the same time, he is also deeply interested in the decorative techniques of Japanese ukiyo-e and shoheji. In this painting, the model is dressed in a nondescrible "kimono", holding a fan, in pursuit of the Japanese beauty painting style. There are also Chinese motifs on carpets and screens, and an Oriental vase that highlights the theme of "the princess of China."
Whistler's wild - spirited character has abated somewhat as he gets older. In 1872 he painted family portraits and frescoes for Leland, the ship owner of Liverpool. He bought time and forced Leland to increase his pay. In the end, Leland paid twice as much to get whistler to finish the mural.
His 1875 lawsuit against John ruskin, a famous critic, is also a story of world painting. Raskin was visiting an important exhibition of whistler's work with the writer Oscar Wilde, and was not pleased with the artist's painting of fireworks scattered over the Thames: a serenade of black and gold. It was an oil painting with irregular dots on the black ground, and raskin said: "it is a kind of deception to spill the paint pot on the canvas and ask the audience to pay for it." Whistler sued raskin at white district court in London for insulting his reputation. The court found raskin guilty but only had to pay a fine of ten pence. This humorous joke mediated a quarrel between two famous intellectuals, but whistler was left with half the legal costs.
