James McNeill Whistler Quotes (26 quotes)

James McNeill Whistler: 26 quotes 0 likes

Famous James McNeill Whistler Quotes

“[another part / version of Whistler's lecture:]
Nature contains the elements, in colour 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 bring forth from chaos glorious harmony. To say to the painter, that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player, that he may sit on the piano. That Nature is always right, is an assertion, artistically, as untrue, as it is one whose truth is universally taken for granted. Nature is very rarely right, to such an extent even, that it might almost be said that Nature is usually wrong: that is to say, the condition of things that shall bring about the perfection of harmony worthy a picture is rare, and not common at all.”

James McNeill Whistler

1870 - 1903, his lecture 'Ten O'Clock' (1885)
Source: James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), Weinberg, H. Barbara, 'Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History'. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/whis/hd_whis.htm (April 2010)

“John Ruskin: 'The labour of two days is that for which you ask two hundred guineas?'
Whistler: 'No. I ask it for the knowledge I have gained in the work of a lifetime.”

James McNeill Whistler

Whistler v. Ruskin (1878)
1870 - 1903

“As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight, and the subject-matter has nothing to do with harmony of sound or of colour. The great musicians knew this. w:Beethoven and the rest wrote music — simply music; symphony in this key, concerto or sonata in that... Art should be independent of all claptrap — should stand alone, and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism, and the like. All these have no kind of concern with it; and that is why I insist on calling my works 'arrangements' and 'harmonies.”

James McNeill Whistler

Propositions, 2
also in a letter to 'The World', London 22 Mai, 1878; as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 186
1870 - 1903, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies' (1890)

“To say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows great and earnest labor, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit for view.”

James McNeill Whistler

Propositions, 2
1870 - 1903, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies' (1890)

“Two and two continue to make four, in spite of the whine of the amateur for three, or the cry of the critic for five.”

James McNeill Whistler

Whistler v. Ruskin
posthumous published

“Listen! There was never an artistic period. There was never an art-loving nation.”

James McNeill Whistler

1870 - 1903, his lecture 'Ten O'Clock' (1885)

James McNeill Whistler Quotes about art

“Art is a goddess of dainty thought, reticent of habit, abjuring all obtrusiveness, purposing in no way to better others. She is, withal selfishly occupied with her own perfection only — having no desire to teach.”

James McNeill Whistler

1870 - 1903, his lecture 'Ten O'Clock' (1885)

“Shall the painter then.... decide upon painting? Shall he be the critic and sole authority? Aggressive as is this supposition, I fear that, in the length of time, his assertion alone has established what even the gentleman of the quill accept as the canons of art, and recognize as the masterpieces of work. Seurat's painting of the Grande Jatte proved extremely influential.”

James McNeill Whistler

quote of Whistler, (1892) In: Gentle Art of making Enemies, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1922, p. 30
1870 - 1903

“Art is upon the Town!”

James McNeill Whistler

1870 - 1903, his lecture 'Ten O'Clock' (1885)

“Industry in art is a necessity - not a virtue - and any evidence of the same, in the production, is a blemish, not a quality; a proof, not of achievement, but of absolutely insufficient work, for work alone will efface the footsteps of work.”

James McNeill Whistler

Propositions, 2
1870 - 1903, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies' (1890)

James McNeill Whistler Quotes

“I am not arguing with you — I am telling you.”

James McNeill Whistler

Propositions, 2
1870 - 1903, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies' (1890)

“Oscar Wilde: 'I wish I had said that'
Whistler: 'You will, Oscar, you will.”

James McNeill Whistler

Source: posthumous published, L.C. Ingleby, Oscar Wilde (1907). This is a paraphrased version of the quotation that has come to be accepted. For a chronology of sources see Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/09/05/oscar-will/.

“You shouldn't say it is not good. You should say you do not like it; and then, you know, you're perfectly safe.”

James McNeill Whistler

Quoted by Don C. Seitz in Whistler Stories http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13973 (1913)
posthumous published

“I know of only two painters in the world,' said a newly introduced feminine enthusiast to Whistler, 'yourself and Velasquez.' 'Why,' answered Whistler in dulcet tones, 'why drag in Velasquez?”

James McNeill Whistler

D.C. Seitz, Whistler Stories (1913)
posthumous published

World

“Yes, madam, Nature is creeping up. [in response to a lady who said that a landscape reminded her of his work]”

James McNeill Whistler

D.C. Seitz, Whistler Stories (1913)
posthumous published

Nature

“If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond this: in portrait painting to put on canvas something more than the face the model wears for that one day: to paint the man, in short, as well as his features; in arrangement of colours to treat a flower as his key, not as his model. This is now understood indifferently well – at least by dressmakers. In every costume you see attention is paid to the key-note of colour which runs through the composition, as the chant of the Anabaptists through the 'Prophète', or the Hugenots' hymn in the opera of that name.”

James McNeill Whistler

In a letter to 'The World', London 22 Mai, 1878; as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 186
1870 - 1903

Flowers , Tree , Painting , Indifference

“The masterpiece should appear as the flower to the painter—perfect in its bud as in its bloom - with no reason to explain it's presence - no mission to fulfill - a joy to the artist, a delusion to the philanthropist - a puzzle to the botanist - an accident of sentiment and alliteration to the literary man.”

James McNeill Whistler

Propositions, 2
1870 - 1903, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies' (1890)

Flowers , Appearance , Joy , Perfection

“It is for the artist.... in portrait painting to put on canvas something more than the face the model wears for that one day; to paint the man, in short, as well as his features.”

James McNeill Whistler

Propositions, 2
1870 - 1903, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies' (1890)

Painting

“I say I can't thank you too much for the name 'Nocturne' as a title for my moonlights! You have no idea what an irritation it proves to the critics and consequent pleasure to me — besides it is really so charming and does so poetically say all that I want to say and no more than I wish.”

James McNeill Whistler

Anderson and Koval, p. 186; as quoted on the English Wikipedia
posthumous published

Pleasure , Idea

“Why should not I call my works 'symphonies', 'arrangements', 'harmonies', and 'nocturnes'?... The vast majority of English folk cannot and will not consider a picture as a picture, apart from any story which it may be supposed to tell. My picture of 'Harmony in Grey and Gold' is an illustration of my meaning – as snow scene with a single black figure and lighted tavern. I care nothing for the past, present, or future of the black figure, placed there because the black was wanted at that spot. All that I know is that my combination of grey and gold is the basis of the picture, Now this is precisely what my friends cannot grasp.”

James McNeill Whistler

Quote in a letter to 'The World', London 22 Mai, 1878; as cited in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 186
1870 - 1903

Light , Past , Future

“The rare few, who, early in life, have rid themselves of the friendship of the many.”

James McNeill Whistler

Dedication
1870 - 1903, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies' (1890)

Life , Friendship

“May I therefore acknowledge the tender glow of health induced by reading, as I sat here in the morning sun, the flattering attention paid me by your gentleman of ready wreath and quick biography!”

James McNeill Whistler

After a Dutch newspaper prematurely! reported his death in 1902
1870 - 1903

Health , Reading , Sun

“A group from Glasgow sought in 1891 to purchase his portrait of w:Thomas Carlyle was shocked that Whistler's price was 1000 guineas. A spokesman countered that the portrait was not even life size. Whistler replied, 'But, you know, few men are life size.”

James McNeill Whistler

Tom Prideaux and Time-Life Books, The World of Whistler (1970)
posthumous published

Life , Men

“Nature is usually wrong.”

James McNeill Whistler

1870 - 1903, his lecture 'Ten O'Clock' (1885)

Nature

“One is always finding out more.”

James McNeill Whistler

[A Chat with Mr. Whistler, January 1895, The Studio, 4, 116–121, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.319510019270823;view=1up;seq=132] (quote from p. 118)
1870 - 1903, A Chat with Mr. Whistler' (1895)