James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Masterpieces from the Frick Collection, New York

FRENCH LANGUAGE

A talented draughtsman, master engraver and controversial painter, the American James McNeill Whistler, who divided his career between Paris and London, was the author of atmospheric masterpieces that focused on the harmony of forms and colors, with stylization quickly taking precedence over the realistic aesthetics of his early works. World famous during his lifetime, he was one of the models for the character of Elstir in Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu. After his marriage in 1888, he returned to live in Paris in the early 1890s. An intimate of Mallarmé, he was in contact with the Symbolist movement through him, while frequenting, thanks to Count Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac (another Proustian model), the world of the wealthy and cultured aristocracy.

The Frick Collection, which opened to the public in 1935 in the New York mansion of tycoon Henry Clay Frick, is one of the most important European art museums in the United States. With the closure of the institution for renovations and the temporary presentation of the collections at the "Frick Madison" between 2021 and 2023, an important group of works by the American painter James McNeill Whistler will leave New York for the first time in more than a century to be presented at the Musée d'Orsay in early 2022.

Through the intertwined destinies of Henry Frick and James Whistler, the book traces the history of the prestigious Frick Collection and explores the forces and developments of the art market in France and the United States, and their influence on Whistler's work.

Exhibition at the musée d'Orsay from 8 February to 8 May 2022

French language
128 pages / 90 illustrations

Rmn - Grand Palais / Musée d'Orsay