Part of the National Gallery of Art's permanent collection, you can take home a reproduction of Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl (1862) for your own gallery in this oversize, 16 x 20" print, printed on a white background.
When James McNeill Whistler submitted The White Girl to the Paris Salon in 1863, the tradition–bound jury refused to show the work. Napoleon III invited avant–garde artists who had been denied official space to show their paintings in a "Salon des Refusés," an exhibition that triggered enormous controversy. Whistler's work met with severe public derision, but a number of artists and critics praised his entry. In the Gazette des Beaux–Arts, Paul Manz referred to it as a "symphony in white," noting a musical correlation to Whistler's paintings that the artist himself would address in the early 1870s, when he retitled a number of works "Nocturne," "Arrangement," "Harmony," and "Symphony."
Whistler used variations of white pigment to create interesting spatial and formal relationships. By limiting his palette, minimizing tonal contrast, and sharply skewing the perspective, he flattened forms and emphasized their abstract patterns. His radical espousal of a purely aesthetic orientation and the creation of "art for art's sake" became a virtual rallying cry of modernism.
Part of the National Gallery of Art's permanent collection, you can take home a reproduction of Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl (1862) for your own gallery in this oversize, 16 x 20" print, printed on a white background.
- 7.5 x 15.5" (image), 16 x 20" (with background)
- 12-color pigment ink with a permanence rating of 100 years
- Unframed, unmatted
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| Description | When James McNeill Whistler submitted The White Girl to the Paris Salon in 1863, the tradition–bound jury refused to show the work. Napoleon III invited avant–garde artists who had been denied official space to show their paintings in a "Salon des Refusés," an exhibition that triggered enormous controversy. Whistler's work met with severe public derision, but a number of artists and critics praised his entry. In the Gazette des Beaux–Arts, Paul Manz referred to it as a "symphony in white," noting a musical correlation to Whistler's paintings that the artist himself would address in the early 1870s, when he retitled a number of works "Nocturne," "Arrangement," "Harmony," and "Symphony." Whistler used variations of white pigment to create interesting spatial and formal relationships. By limiting his palette, minimizing tonal contrast, and sharply skewing the perspective, he flattened forms and emphasized their abstract patterns. His radical espousal of a purely aesthetic orientation and the creation of "art for art's sake" became a virtual rallying cry of modernism. Part of the National Gallery of Art's permanent collection, you can take home a reproduction of Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl (1862) for your own gallery in this oversize, 16 x 20" print, printed on a white background.
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