{"object":[{"sourceId":{"label":"Source ID","value":"894"},"creditline":{"label":"Credit Line","value":"Bequest of William P. Chapman, Jr., Class of 1895"},"labelText":{"label":"More Information","value":"Whistler was invited by the secretary of the British Fine Arts Committee, J. W. Beck, to exhibit in the British section at the World Columbian Exposition. But the artist, irascible as ever, was angry over previous treatment from the head of the Academy, Sir Frederick Leighton, who \u201cskied\u201d his paintings when sent for exhibition at the Academy. Whistler sent a scathing letter, exclaiming, \u201cLeighton\u2019s expressed wish that I should contribute to the British Section for the Chicago Exhibition, I confess fills me with the bewilderment of Thackeray\u2019s little boy in the street, to whom he had abruptly given a penny, and whose surprise was more ready than his gratitude! Pray convey my distinguished consideration to the President, and say that I have an undefined sense of something ominously flattering occurring\u2014but that no previous desire on his part ever to deal with work of mine, has prepared me with the proper sort of acknowledgment. No! no, Mr. Beck, \u2018Once hung\u2014twice Sky!\u2019 \u201d Nonetheless Whistler still wished to participate and, in a letter to Halsey Ives, chief of the Fine Arts Department of the World\u2019s Columbian Exhibition Corporation, wrote, \u201cI am greatly interested in the Chicago Exposition and most anxious to be well represented there.\u201d Walter C. Larned, vice chairman and Secretary of the Committee on Congresses of Artists, invited Whistler to give a talk on \u201cThe Impressionists\u2014their aim, their position among painters today\u2014the probable future of this school.\u201d Whistler did not accept, though it seems from his correspondence that he considered attending the fair\u2014though this, too, did not occur. <br><br>(\u201cJapanAmerica: Points of Contact, 1876\u20131970,\" curated by Nancy E. Green and presented at the Johnson Museum August 27\u2013December 18, 2016)<br><br>----<br><br>A choked highway of commercial and industrial boat traffic by day, the Thames quieted at night. It was at dusk when Whistler would have oarsmen row him onto the river, where they would remain adrift for hours as he sought the fleeting atmospheric effects of fog, smoke, and mist in the fading light of the waterway. Whistler became adept at creating the visual memory of a nighttime scene in his mind\u2019s eye and then rendering it on canvas, plate, paper, or, as in this instance, lithographic stone in the studio. The pale blue paper provides a perfect ground for the quiet, monochromatic tone of Nocturne. (\u201cThe Touch of the Butterfly: Whistler and His Influence,\" curated by Nancy E. Green and presented at the Johnson Museum August 4-December 16, 2018)"},"invno":{"label":"Object number","value":"57.271"},"description":{"label":"Description","value":"James Abbott McNeill WhistlerLowell, Massachusetts 1834\u20131903 LondonNocturne1888Lithotint with scraping, on a prepared half-tint ground, on chine colléImage: 6 3/4 x 10 1/8 inches (17.1 x 25.7 cm)Sheet: 14 1/8 x 17 5/16 inches (35.9 x 44 cm)Way 5; Tedeschi/Stratis 8 ii/iiBequest of William P. Chapman, Jr., Class of 189557.271Whistler, more than any other artist, was responsible for importing the \u201cnocturne\u201d from music into visual art. In 1885, he spoke of the artist\u2019s unique ability to capture the transformative effects of twilight in the city, magically converting, for example, London\u2019s factories and warehouses into bell towers and palaces. Is this image London or Venice? Is the foreground figure a bargeman or a gondolier?Stuart M. Blumin"},"medium":{"label":"Medium","value":"Lithotint with chine collé on pale blue paper"},"onview":{"label":"On View","value":"0"},"media":{"label":"Media","value":"57.271_Disc8038_80385027"},"title":{"label":"Title","value":"Nocturne"},"classification":{"label":"Classifications","value":"Prints"},"people":{"label":"Artist / Maker / Culture","value":"James Abbott McNeill Whistler"},"primaryMedia":{"value":"https://emuseum.cornell.edu/internal/media/dispatcher/80278/full"},"displayDate":{"label":"Date","value":"1878"},"id":{"label":"Id","value":"185335"},"dimensions":{"label":"Dimensions","value":"Image: 6 3/4 x 10 1/8 inches (17.1 x 25.7 cm);Sheet: 14 1/8 x 17 5/16 inches (35.9 x 44 cm)"}}]}