Existing comment:
The Perfection of Art
"A Picture is finished when all trace of the means used to bring about the end has disappeared.... Work alone will efface the footsteps of work."
-- Whistler, 1884
Frederick Leyland's prestigious commission for a fourth "symphony in white" inspired Whistler to undertake a grueling course of self-education. Aware that he had neglected formal art studies in his youth, Whistler resolved to develop the skills needed in drawing and composition to achieve the perfection he envisioned for The Three Girls. Dozens of sketches of models, both nude and draped, working or resting in the studio, attest to his labors. The "demands and difficulties" of this practice exceeded anything he had ever known, Whistler confided to a friend. It was the pain, he imagined, of giving birth.
Whistler was inspired by the working methods of his close friend, the English artist Albert Moore, who refined every element of a picture through preparatory studies before he set brush to canvas. Meticulous preparation enabled Moore to paint with brisk confidence and total certainty -- qualities Whistler knew his own work lacked. Although he complained about the drudgery of "spend[ing] the whole day drawing from models," Whistler expected to benefit from the time and effort. "The results of the education I Have been giving myself these two years and more," he assured a friend in 1869, "will show themselves in the time gained in my future work." |