"HOMMAGE À DELACROIX," BY FANTIN-LATOUR.
In 1859 he went with several fellow students, Fantin-Latour, Legros, and Ribot, to Bonvin's studio to work from the model, under the direction of Courbet. At that time he was interested in types. He painted a "Fumette," a little grisette of the Quartier Latin, and the "Mother Gerard," who in her younger days had been a maker of pretty verses, but, reduced in circumstances, had become a flower vender at the Bal Bullier. Among his friends and associates we find the names of Legros, Cordier, Duranty, the etcher Bracquemond, inventor of the "pen and ink" process, de Balleroy, Champfleury, Manet and Baudelaire. They were all young men of talent, plein d'avenir. Fantin-Latour made a group-portrait of them, including Whistler and himself, seated and standing, assembled about a portrait of Delacroix. The canvas was exhibited at the Salon of 1864 as an "Hommage à Delacroix."
Whistler's step-sister had married Seymour Haden, the etcher, and Whistler, paying them a visit in 1859, stayed in London. The four years in Paris had matured him, and he knew how to accomplish something beyond the routine studio work. In 1862 he exhibited for the Royal Academy. It was his "At the Piano," which, if not a masterpiece, is already a true and individual work of art.
Courbet still had a strong hold on him. He spent two summers with him in Trouville and may have derived his first lessons as a mystificateur, which part he played so successfully during life, from the French painter, for Courbet was a poseur throughout, who assumed a particular kind of dress, and who was not satisfied merely with painting pictures that offended the Academy and conventional taste, but made a special effort and took special pleasure in shocking the bourgeoisie.
Whistler also made his first trip to Holland during these years, and became enchanted with Rembrandt and Vermeer, but took a great dislike to Van der Helst. In 1859-60 youthful efforts of his had been refused at the Paris Salon; the same happened again in 1863, but he was one of the men who scored a success at the Salon des Refusées. A number of talented painters, and among them men of genius like Manet, Cazin, Degas, Harpignies, Vollon, Pissaro, Jongkind and Bracquemond, tired of the cliquism and jury of the regular Salon,—a story which repeats itself everywhere,—decided to arrange their own exhibition. Napoleon III, in his nonchalant way a true patron of art, issued an order to arrange the exhibition of "revolt" in the same building as the official exhibition. The exhibition was a success, and even the Empress Eugenie and the court came to see it. This is really of no significance, as nobody bought anything; but it sounds well, and biographers should never neglect to mention such incidents.
Owned by John H. Whittemore
THE WOMAN IN WHITE.
One thing is certain: Whistler's picture, "The White Girl," even with Manet's "Dejeuner sur l'Herbe" in the same room, attracted an unusual share of attention. Zola, in "L'Œuvre," says that the crowd laughed in front of "La Dame en Blanc." Desnoyers thought it "the most remarkable picture, at once simple and fantastic with a beauty so peculiar that the public did not know whether to think it beautiful or ugly." Paul Mantz wrote in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts that it was the most important picture in the exhibition and called the picture a "Symphonie du Blanc" some years before Whistler adopted that title.
The exhibition of this picture represents, in a way, the turning point in Whistler's career. It was a steady ascent ever after. Before this he was unknown, and exposed to the manifold privations and vicissitudes of an artist's career. Many a day he had gone hungry and frequently could not paint for lack of material. Now things began to run a trifle smoother, although sales were still rare and money scarce. His lodgings in 7 Linsey Row (now 101 Cheyne Walk) were extremely simple and his studio consisted of a second-story back room.