Venetian Scene

Artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler (American, 1834 - 1903)

Datec. 1880

MediumPastel on brown paper

Dimensions11 x 7 1/2 in. (27.9 x 19.1 cm)
Frame Dimension: 20 3/4 × 16 3/4 × 1 1/8 in. (52.7 × 42.5 × 2.9 cm)

ClassificationsDrawing

Credit LineHarriet Russell Stanley Fund

Terms

Object number1950.12

DescriptionFrom 1879-90, Whistler lived in Venice with his fellow American artists Frank Duveneck, Otto Bacher, and Robert Frederick Blum and worked throughout the city producing etchings, some oil paintings, and an amazing assortment of 100 pastels. Drawing upon the tradition of the "vedute" (Italian for view paintings) of Venice by the celebrated 18th-century Italian painters Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto) and Francesco Guardi, Whistler painted pastels (his preferred medium during his stay in Venice) of the utmost originality and individuality. "Venetian Scene" shows a view to the west from the neighborhood of San Biagio in Castello over the Bacino looking towards the 17th century church of Santa Maria della Salute. Whistler most likely executed this pastel from or nearby the Casa Jankowitz, a popular lodging house of American artists working in Venice at the time. He chose this spot in particular because of the breathtaking vistas which the hotel afforded him.

In this ethereal, shimmering scene, the viewer notices that the artist has first sketched the outline of the view and then carefully applied color to the paper with pastels of gold, white, and blue, thereby rendering an image which seems to emerge from the paper. Whistler leads the viewer's eye from the dense, very sketchy foreground (where a gondolier steers his boat and another figure guides a cart along the bank) to the Santa Maria della Salute in the distance through the glistening currents of the blue water. The clouds, which hover above the church and float toward us, dominate the horizon and accentuate the overall airiness and harmony of the composition.

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