AT THE PIANO.
In his earlier career Whistler occasionally made use of more elaborate accessories, as in his "Little White Girl," "The Princess of the Porcelain Land," and the "Woman in White." The latter I consider one of his weakest compositions. The figure is rather stiff and too high up in the picture. The carpeted floor looks as though it were sloping. The bottom of the dress is too distinct. The same could be said of the entire contour, the lines are not sufficiently graceful to permit such clearness of line. Also as a painting of a white figure on a white background it is not unsurpassed. "Katherine Emmerich," by Gabriel Max, at the Pinakothek, Munich, and the Raffaelli's "Sleeping Woman," in the Wilstach Gallery, Philadelphia, treat the same theme but are technically superior.
Whistler developed slowly. Only gradually he learned to avoid detail as much as possible, and only occasionally accentuated it here and there, as a note of contrast to the larger planes. The years 1870-90 were the most active and important years of his career. Nearly all his portraits, those of Frederick Leyland, Florence Leyland, Miss Alexander, Rose Corder, Sarasate, Sir Henry Irving as Philip II, The Fur Jacket, Lady Archibald Campbell, The Artist's Mother, Carlyle, Theodore Duret, Mme. Cassatt, Mrs. Huth, Lady Meux, etc., were painted in that period.
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum, New York
SIR HENRY IRVING AS PHILIP II.
All these later pictures were painted under the ban of Velasquez. In Whistler's paintings Velasquez's art was revived and rejuvenated. He repeats the same inspirations but in an etherealized, modernized and individualized manner. Whistler was triumphantly himself.