If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Born 16 September 1837 in Campertogno, died at Bergosesia 4 October 1905. Gilardi began his artistic career following in the footsteps of his father, an engraver. In 1860 he settled in Turin and began to study painting at the Accademia Albertina, under Andrea Gastaldi. His first efforts were of historical subjects: his first exhibited work depicted the death of Andrea del Sarto. Gilardi became convinced, however, that history painting was not congenial to him and he is, in fact, known for humorous genre scenes and competent portraiture instead. He was popular with critics and the public, alike, and exhibited his work both nationally and internationally. He was an admirer of Fortuny and Meissonier and his costume pictures reflect that interest.
In 1870 Gilardi was awarded the chair of design and sculpture in the professional schools of Biella. In 1873 he is known to be at the Accademia Albertina, working under his former teacher Gastaldi, whom he succeeded in the position of master of painting (maestro) in 1889. Gilardi's many students include P. Azzi, Federico Boccardo, L. Bolongaro, Demetrio Cosola, C. L. Gallo, E. Morelli, and others.
His works are in private collections, in Italy and abroad, and in public galleries, including galleries at Turin, Rome and Mannheim.
Sources:
Bénézit, E. Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs. Paris: Gründ, 1976, vol. 4; Comanducci, A. M. "Dizionario illustrato dei pittori, disegnatori e incisori italiani moderni e contemporanei." 4th ed. Milan: Luigi Pattuzi Editore, 1972, vol. 3; Dizionario enciclopedico Bolaffi dei pittori e degli incisori italiani, dall’XI al XX secolo. Torino: Bolaffi, 1972-1976, vol. 5; Thieme, Ulrich and Felix Becker, eds. Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler. Leipzig: Seeman, 1907-1950, vol. 14.
Two women on a settee dressed in elegant 19th century attire, one holding a fan and the other a parasol, while another richly clad woman leans in close beside them, in a lavishly decorated interior setting with ornately carved gilded walls, a large mirror above the settee, inlaid marble floor, and large vases to either side of the settee. In the center of the room is a sculpture of the Medici Venus on a pedestal with her back to the viewer, her reflection evident in the mirror. Between the base of the sculpture and the viewer is an elaborately carved gilt stool covered with rich red fabric. Beside the sculpture, another woman holding a book walks towards the cluster of women.
Subject Matter
Elegantly dressed women in 19th century attire whisper and titter about the sculpture of Venus de’Medici in the center of the room, depicting the goddess in a fleeting pose as she unsuccessfully attempts to cover her nude body with her arms in a gesture of modesty. Gilardi, who places Venus’s back to the viewer, cleverly reveals her front side reflected in a mirror above a settee upon which the women are seated, enabling the viewer to see both the expressions of the women and what it is they are whispering about, creating a witty commentary on the prudish social mores of 19th century puritanical society.
Label Copy
March 28 2009
In A Visit to the Gallery we observe three elegantly dressed museum goers as they sit on a couch observing, in turn, and with apparent delight, the famous classical sculpture of Venus de Medici attempting to cover her nudity. Gilardi brilliantly incorporates a large mirror into the scene, which shows the viewer something of what the women can see but also wittily serves as a prop that instigates Venus’s gesture. Another visual witticism is the juxtaposition of Venus and the heavily clad woman standing to her right in a similar pose: the naked Venus is a forceful reminder of the body hidden under all those layers of dress. The setting of the scene is possibly the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, which has housed the Venus de Medici since 1647, when it was removed from Rome by a Pope who felt it was inciting lewd behavior in the citizenry. The sculpture quickly became an icon of the Grand Tour and of feminine beauty.
The subject of art viewing may have been particularly interesting to the painting’s owner, Henry C. Lewis, an avid Michigan art collector who established a gallery in Coldwater, Michigan, to which he welcomed visitors. Lewis’s vast collection was eventually donated to the University of Michigan, where it formed the core of one of the earliest art museums in the United States.
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Studied painting with the Kano school, and served in the late Tokugawa bakufu in a minor position. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, studied with the Ukiyo e artist Toyohara Kunichika, whose names he took as his artist's names. Prolific producer of prints of contemporary news, specializing in fanciful images of the imperial family, as well as scenes of the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 and other battles.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Studied painting with the Kano school, and served in the late Tokugawa bakufu in a minor position. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, studied with the Ukiyo e artist Toyohara Kunichika, whose names he took as his artist's names. Prolific producer of prints of contemporary news, specializing in fanciful images of the imperial family, as well as scenes of the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 and other battles.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Studied painting with the Kano school, and served in the late Tokugawa bakufu in a minor position. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, studied with the Ukiyo e artist Toyohara Kunichika, whose names he took as his artist's names. Prolific producer of prints of contemporary news, specializing in fanciful images of the imperial family, as well as scenes of the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 and other battles.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Born July 10, 1834 in Lowell, Massachusetts, the son of George Washington Whistler, a draftsman and civil engineer. In 1842 the senior Whistler was employed by the Russian government to help build a railroad between St. Petersburg and Moscow. James Whistler thus spent seven years of his youth in Russia (1842-49). In 1851 he entered West Point Academy but was discharged in 1854, for deficiency in chemistry. He worked as a draftsman from 1854 to 1855 in the U. S. Coast Survey, Washington, D.C., where he also learned to etch. In 1855 he left the United States for Paris and, after five years in France, settled in London. He never returned to the United States. He enjoyed great success in his life, as a painter and printmaker, but also struggled for acceptance and endured times of financial hardship.
Whistler studied at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia and at West Point Academy, but probably received his earliest artistic training from his father. In 1856 he entered the studio of Marc-Gabriel Charles Gleyre in Paris and became acquainted with Henri Martin, Henri Oulevey, George du Maurier, E. G. Poynter and L. M. Lamont. In 1858 Whistler met Fantin-Latour at the Louvre. Fantin-Latour took him to the Cafe Molière, where he met Legros, Carolus-Duran and Astruc and to the Brasserie Andler, the meeting place of Courbet and his followers. Fantin, Whistler, and Legros formed their own society, the Société des Trois in the same year. Later, in 1865, Albert Moore replaced Legros as the third member of the Société.
Whistler submitted the painting, At the Piano, to the Salon in 1859. Rejected by the Salon, the painting was exhibited in Francois Bonvin's studio. This was also the first painting by Whistler exhibited in Britain, at the Royal Academy, in 1860. Among Whistler's principal patrons early in his career include F. R. Leyland and W. C. Alexander and among major works he produced at this time are portraits of family members of these two men.
In England, Whistler became acquainted with the pre-Raphaelite circle of artists. He began collecting Japanese art and curios in the early 1860s and also is known to have visited the Salon des Refusés in Paris when many of the Impressionist painters were exhibiting there. Whistler's many connections with contemporary artists and wide interests make him an artist difficult to pigeonhole.
Two events in Whistler's life perhaps shed some light on his character: he sued John Ruskin for libel in 1877 (the fees incurred during the case forced him to declare bankruptcy in 1879) and in 1890 he published a book "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies."
Whistler married Beatrix Godwin, widow of E. W. Godwin, in 1888. She preceded him in death in 1896. Whistler died in London on July 17, 1903.
One-man exhibitions: 1874 London, Flemish Gallery; 1904 Memorial exhibition, Boston; 1905 Memorial exhibition, London and Paris
Memberships:
Elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists, 1884; president, 1886-1888
First president of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers, 1898-1903
Officer of Legion of Honor, France
Member of Société Nationale des Artistes Françaises
Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy
Chevalier of the Order of St. Michael of Bavaria
Honorary member of Royal Academies of Bavaria, Dresden, and of St. Luke in Rome
Sources: Groce, G. C. and D. H. Wallace, eds. "The New York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America 1564-1860." New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957; MacDonald, M. F. "James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours." New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995; McNamara, C. and J. Siewert, "Whistler: Prosaic Views, Poetic Vision." London: Thames and Hudson, 1994; Opitz, Glenn B., ed. "Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers," 2nd ed. Poughkeepsie: Apollo, 1986; Spencer, R. "Whistler: The Masterworks." London: Studio Editions, 1990.
A stretch of water in the foreground and middle ground leads to a horizontal distant shore that is composed of a series of horizontal stepped recessions. The buildings on the far shore appear to be industrial buildings, with many smokestacks. At the bottom of the image are some lightly drawn boats.
Subject Matter
Whsitler's home in Chelsea afforded him with views such as this looking towards the commercial portions of Battersea, across the Thames. Whistler favored depicting the river at transitional times of day: dawn, dusk, nighttime because the reduced lighting suggested a poetic beauty, even of warehouses, that broad daylight did not. Here, at dawn, Whistler captures the moment when the shape and mass of objects just begins to coalesce and take on substance.
Label Copy
Battersea: Dawn
1875
Drypoint
First state of four (Kennedy 155)
Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker, 1954/1.362
In his Chelsea neighborhood, Whistler had extensive views of the Thames. The mists that could cloak buildings along the river at any time offered him a more poetic vision of the Thames, and his nocturnes—views of the river at dawn or dusk—are a more tonal response to it than the works of the Thames Set. Battersea: Dawn is a drypoint depiction of the Thames at this liminal time of day, capturing the scene with some of the most delicate lines Whistler ever attempted.
Drypoint lines are rich and soft in character, but they also produce high contrast through the creation of dark black areas with a velvety quality. Here Whistler exploits the first characteristic of drypoint while suppressing and controlling the second. In this muted, evanescent view of the river enveloped in morning fog, he retains the soft burr of the drypoint line—the better to capture the moment when early light allows objects to assume shape and mass—while minimizing drypoint’s usual strong contrasts, capturing the scene with feathery, delicate lines suggestive of the wet atmosphere of a riverside dawn.
Inscription
Signed in pencil on tab: butterfly Inscribed in pencil, on verso, l.l. (in Whistler's hand): "Battersea Morn" - 1st - / Plate destroyed Signed on the plate, u.r.: butterfly Watermark: Arms of Amsterdam
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Born July 10, 1834 in Lowell, Massachusetts, the son of George Washington Whistler, a draftsman and civil engineer. In 1842 the senior Whistler was employed by the Russian government to help build a railroad between St. Petersburg and Moscow. James Whistler thus spent seven years of his youth in Russia (1842-49). In 1851 he entered West Point Academy but was discharged in 1854, for deficiency in chemistry. He worked as a draftsman from 1854 to 1855 in the U. S. Coast Survey, Washington, D.C., where he also learned to etch. In 1855 he left the United States for Paris and, after five years in France, settled in London. He never returned to the United States. He enjoyed great success in his life, as a painter and printmaker, but also struggled for acceptance and endured times of financial hardship.
Whistler studied at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia and at West Point Academy, but probably received his earliest artistic training from his father. In 1856 he entered the studio of Marc-Gabriel Charles Gleyre in Paris and became acquainted with Henri Martin, Henri Oulevey, George du Maurier, E. G. Poynter and L. M. Lamont. In 1858 Whistler met Fantin-Latour at the Louvre. Fantin-Latour took him to the Cafe Molière, where he met Legros, Carolus-Duran and Astruc and to the Brasserie Andler, the meeting place of Courbet and his followers. Fantin, Whistler, and Legros formed their own society, the Société des Trois in the same year. Later, in 1865, Albert Moore replaced Legros as the third member of the Société.
Whistler submitted the painting, At the Piano, to the Salon in 1859. Rejected by the Salon, the painting was exhibited in Francois Bonvin's studio. This was also the first painting by Whistler exhibited in Britain, at the Royal Academy, in 1860. Among Whistler's principal patrons early in his career include F. R. Leyland and W. C. Alexander and among major works he produced at this time are portraits of family members of these two men.
In England, Whistler became acquainted with the pre-Raphaelite circle of artists. He began collecting Japanese art and curios in the early 1860s and also is known to have visited the Salon des Refusés in Paris when many of the Impressionist painters were exhibiting there. Whistler's many connections with contemporary artists and wide interests make him an artist difficult to pigeonhole.
Two events in Whistler's life perhaps shed some light on his character: he sued John Ruskin for libel in 1877 (the fees incurred during the case forced him to declare bankruptcy in 1879) and in 1890 he published a book "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies."
Whistler married Beatrix Godwin, widow of E. W. Godwin, in 1888. She preceded him in death in 1896. Whistler died in London on July 17, 1903.
One-man exhibitions: 1874 London, Flemish Gallery; 1904 Memorial exhibition, Boston; 1905 Memorial exhibition, London and Paris
Memberships:
Elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists, 1884; president, 1886-1888
First president of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers, 1898-1903
Officer of Legion of Honor, France
Member of Société Nationale des Artistes Françaises
Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy
Chevalier of the Order of St. Michael of Bavaria
Honorary member of Royal Academies of Bavaria, Dresden, and of St. Luke in Rome
Sources: Groce, G. C. and D. H. Wallace, eds. "The New York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America 1564-1860." New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957; MacDonald, M. F. "James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours." New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995; McNamara, C. and J. Siewert, "Whistler: Prosaic Views, Poetic Vision." London: Thames and Hudson, 1994; Opitz, Glenn B., ed. "Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers," 2nd ed. Poughkeepsie: Apollo, 1986; Spencer, R. "Whistler: The Masterworks." London: Studio Editions, 1990.
The upper two stories of buildings in a narrow city street are drawn, the ground floor left undescribed. The vantage point severly crops and foreshortens the buildings on the right side of the street but gives a fuller view of the gables and overhangs of the buildings on the left side of the street.
Subject Matter
Whistler's interest in depicting picturesque old buildings and the sharp recession provided by closely build houses goes back to "The Street at Saverne" from the French Set. These old structures were also captured by the photographers Alfred and John Bool (see 1991/1.114) and may possibly reflect Whistler's interest in recording, and possibly preserving, distinctive older architecture.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Born July 10, 1834 in Lowell, Massachusetts, the son of George Washington Whistler, a draftsman and civil engineer. In 1842 the senior Whistler was employed by the Russian government to help build a railroad between St. Petersburg and Moscow. James Whistler thus spent seven years of his youth in Russia (1842-49). In 1851 he entered West Point Academy but was discharged in 1854, for deficiency in chemistry. He worked as a draftsman from 1854 to 1855 in the U. S. Coast Survey, Washington, D.C., where he also learned to etch. In 1855 he left the United States for Paris and, after five years in France, settled in London. He never returned to the United States. He enjoyed great success in his life, as a painter and printmaker, but also struggled for acceptance and endured times of financial hardship.
Whistler studied at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Russia and at West Point Academy, but probably received his earliest artistic training from his father. In 1856 he entered the studio of Marc-Gabriel Charles Gleyre in Paris and became acquainted with Henri Martin, Henri Oulevey, George du Maurier, E. G. Poynter and L. M. Lamont. In 1858 Whistler met Fantin-Latour at the Louvre. Fantin-Latour took him to the Cafe Molière, where he met Legros, Carolus-Duran and Astruc and to the Brasserie Andler, the meeting place of Courbet and his followers. Fantin, Whistler, and Legros formed their own society, the Société des Trois in the same year. Later, in 1865, Albert Moore replaced Legros as the third member of the Société.
Whistler submitted the painting, At the Piano, to the Salon in 1859. Rejected by the Salon, the painting was exhibited in Francois Bonvin's studio. This was also the first painting by Whistler exhibited in Britain, at the Royal Academy, in 1860. Among Whistler's principal patrons early in his career include F. R. Leyland and W. C. Alexander and among major works he produced at this time are portraits of family members of these two men.
In England, Whistler became acquainted with the pre-Raphaelite circle of artists. He began collecting Japanese art and curios in the early 1860s and also is known to have visited the Salon des Refusés in Paris when many of the Impressionist painters were exhibiting there. Whistler's many connections with contemporary artists and wide interests make him an artist difficult to pigeonhole.
Two events in Whistler's life perhaps shed some light on his character: he sued John Ruskin for libel in 1877 (the fees incurred during the case forced him to declare bankruptcy in 1879) and in 1890 he published a book "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies."
Whistler married Beatrix Godwin, widow of E. W. Godwin, in 1888. She preceded him in death in 1896. Whistler died in London on July 17, 1903.
One-man exhibitions: 1874 London, Flemish Gallery; 1904 Memorial exhibition, Boston; 1905 Memorial exhibition, London and Paris
Memberships:
Elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists, 1884; president, 1886-1888
First president of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers, 1898-1903
Officer of Legion of Honor, France
Member of Société Nationale des Artistes Françaises
Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy
Chevalier of the Order of St. Michael of Bavaria
Honorary member of Royal Academies of Bavaria, Dresden, and of St. Luke in Rome
Sources: Groce, G. C. and D. H. Wallace, eds. "The New York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America 1564-1860." New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957; MacDonald, M. F. "James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours." New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995; McNamara, C. and J. Siewert, "Whistler: Prosaic Views, Poetic Vision." London: Thames and Hudson, 1994; Opitz, Glenn B., ed. "Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers," 2nd ed. Poughkeepsie: Apollo, 1986; Spencer, R. "Whistler: The Masterworks." London: Studio Editions, 1990.
The curving bank of a river begins at the lower left of the image and sweeps around towards the left. Hugging the water's edge are many wooden buildings of two to five stories in height. At the far left, in the distance, are numerous two- and three-masted ships at anchor. The water at the lower left is open and quiet; a few small boats can be seen; the sky indicates that it is an overcast day.
Subject Matter
In the later 1870s, Whistler revisited subjects of the docks and wharves along the Pool of London; his etchings of such views in the "Thames Set" had been very popular. This site along the Thames is seen from Limehouse, on the right is the Free Trade Wharf in Ratcliffe.
Inscription
On the plate, l.l.: Butterfly monogram Watermark: B/TH, in circular cartouche
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Letters in margin, l.l.: Philip Koninck pinx. L'Art. ; l.c.: LA PLAINE DE HARLEM (Cabinet de Mr. le Comte Andre de Bloudoff) ; l.r.: G. Greux sc. Fcois Liénard, Imp. Paris. Watermark, u.l.: [ARC]Hes
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Signed in print, l.r.: Lalanne Dated and Inscribed, l.l.: à Haarlem 1877 Letters in margin, l.l.: Maxime Lalanne, del. et sc. L'Art ; l.c.: A HAARLEM (Hollande) ; l.r.: Fcois Liénard, Imp. Paris. Watermark, u.r.: ARC[HES]
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
Okuhara Seiko was one of the leading women artists of Meiji period Japan. A native of Koga in Ibaraki prefecture, her father was a samurai in service to the Doi clan, and she received an traditional Confucian education in the clan school (something highly unusual for girl children). She moved to Edo in 1865, just on the eve of the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate and the establishment of the new Meiji government. She quickly found success as a professional painter, training pupils at a school she founded in Shitaya. In the early 1890s, when tastes were shifting toward Western-style art and her studio land was claimed for a railroad, she moved her residence to Kumagaya, and traveled extensively during the last two decades of her life. [Abridged and adapted from Oranda Jin, "Japanese Painters," August 2006, p. 39.]
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please fax a request to the attention of Orian Neumann, Assistant Registrar, at 734-474-7643. For other queries, email orian@umich.edu.edu.
