“‘Nature contains the elements, in color and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music. But the artist is born to pick, and choose, and group with science, these elements, that the result may be beautiful – as the musician gathers his notes and forms his chords, until he brings forth from chaos glorious harmony. To say to the painter that nature must be taken as she is, is to say to the player, that he may sit on the piano’� (qtd. MacDonald 12).
The “Nocturnes� thus epitomize the Impressionist concept of art. They represent Whistler’s impression of the night, which, given the nature of the subject matter as shadowy and vague, is perhaps the truest representation of all. But, how does one “paint the night� (Pennell 112), as the Pennells put it in their book Life of Whistler? How did Whistler create these true masterworks of Impressionism? In truth, Whistler’s method of painting the “Nocturnes� was both as eccentric and as inspired as the works he created. His unique personal attributes allowed him to see the night on canvas as none had before.
Most of what is known about Whistler’s artistic methods comes from the accounts of his friends: Walter Greaves, Mortimer Menpes, and the Pennells. It was they who stood by him as he painted, and it was with their help that Whistler adopted his distinct style of preparation for painting a “Nocturne.� Whistler did not paint from nature as did some of his Impressionist contemporaries because, in a somewhat sardonic twist, it was impossible to know the colors with which he was painting at night. Thus he adopted a ritualized strategy of observation and retention. According to the Pennells,
“His method was to go out at night,…stand before his subject and look at it, then turn back on it and repeat to whoever was with him the arrangement, the scheme of color, and as much of the detail as he wanted. The listener corrected errors when they occurred� (Pennell 113).
He would then return to bed, and wake of the next morning still seeing the image of the night in his head and on his canvas. Whistler thus created innovative new methods of painting to go along with his inspired genre of “painting the night.� He was first an innovator and then an inspired artist.
In addition to his inventive genius, Whistler's tendencies towards the meticulous and the stylized also came out in his method of painting the “Nocturnes.� Menpes tells us that Whistler was very particular in the manner of his dress – “his straight-brimmed hat, his cane, the way he held his cane, each and every detail was studied, but only as a means of forming a decorative whole� (Menpes 36). This image of Whistler is perhaps exhibited by the portrait of the artist done by his close friend, Walter Greaves, and certainly reveals in Harry Fourniss's charicature. Whistler acted very similarly in terms of his color palette. In an echo of his former observation, Menpes writes, “The colors on his palette, when he did use one, he arranged in a manner which he maintained to be highly scientific� (Menpes 69). Yet this is only the first of many examples in which Whistler’s meticulous personality carried over into his method of painting. For instance, if Whistler perceived the slightest imperfection in his brushstrokes or tone, he would wipe away the entire canvas. Thus, his personality greatly influenced his means of capturing the night on canvas.
Whistler’s method of painting the night was a reflection of himself – just as eccentric and just as brilliant. Whistler was truly born to “‘pick choose, and group with science, these elements.’� The beauty of his “Nocturnes� is a reflection of his identity. Whistler was as an artist who he was as a man. His impression of the night is perhaps more truthful as a result.
The Thames at Night.
Greaves, Walter. James Abott McNeil Whistler, 1880-1900.
Furniss, Harry. James Abott McNeil Whistler, 1880-1900.