100 years have passed since an evening in london when a curious audience gathered to hear a lecture by James Mcneill whistler. [clock ticking] he began by saying that the artist stands in no relation to the moment at which he occurs. He is no more a product of his time than is a scientific truth newly asserted. The assertion requires man to make it but the truth itself exists independently. [clock strikes] James Mcneill whistler arrived in paris on november 3, 1855 resolved to be an artist having left america never to return. He was 21. His mother hoped he would follow a career at west point, as his father and grandfather had before him but his temperament was not suited to the discipline of army life. He failed out of west point. In paris whistler began his studies at the academy of charles gleyre, who had a reputation for providing solid groundwork in drawing and painting yet encouraging individuality. Following his admission to the academy whistler was issued a pass to the louvre, w
music all petty and exacting details vanish and i see thing as they are in greattrong masses. The buttons are lost but the garment remains. The sitter is lost but the shadow remains. The shadow is lost but the picture remains. Anthat, night cannot efface from the painter imagination James Mcneill whistler. Narrator painter, printmaker, designer, and critic whistler was one of the most original and controversial artists of his time. He was born in 14, in the Industrial Town of lowell, massachusetts. When he was nine years old his father was hired to oversee construction of a railway in russia the family moved to st. Petersburg. Whistler later claimed that cosmopolitan city as his birthplace. I shall be born when and whe i want and i do not choose to be born at lowell. After eight years in russia, the fami returned and settled pomfret, nnecticut. rapid drumbeats in 1851, whistler entered the military academy at west point. Whistler was often in my room and there made skches in india ink.
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