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Clip & save art notes. ABOUT THIS PAINTING The River Thames at London always had a special attraction forJames McNeil Whistler. He was fascinated by the crowded warehouses thatlined the banks of the river and the tangle of masts, sails and riggingthat were part of every seaport 150 years ago. Whistler shows us a worldof boats before diesel engines had been invented, although he included asmall steamboat in the upper center of the picture with its tall funnelbelching smoke as it pushes a white bow wave A bow wave is the wave that forms at the bow of a boat when it moves through the water. As the bow wave spreads out, it defines the outer limits of a boat's wake. The size of the bow wave is a function of the speed of the boat, ocean waves, ocean depth, and the shape of the bow. ahead of it. Other than this one steam-driven boat, the artist portrayed aseaport of sailing vessels and rowboats. Some are small riverboats,while larger seagoing sea��go��ing?adj.Made or used for ocean voyages.seagoingAdjectivebuilt for travelling on the seaAdj. 1. boats are at anchor anchored.See also: Anchor or are moored beside docks.Numbers of smaller vessels are moving between the larger boats withoars, while smaller sailboats are moving up and down the river. But, nowhere is there much suggestion of activity compared withmodern seaports where powerboats move quickly and noisily around, andwhere cranes load and unload enormous ocean-going freighters around theclock. In many ways, however, old-time seaports are more picturesque thanthose of today. The strong diagonal lines of the rigging contrast withthe sagging shapes of the sails, filling most of the upper half of thispainting with varied shapes and objects to look at. Whistler was fascinated by this variety of visual interest presentin scenes of the River Thames. He loved the variety and detail of suchscenes so much that, at one time, he had a home beside the river so hecould look out of his front window and paint pictures. On this occasion,he painted himself with some friends sitting around talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to"lecture, speechrebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to oneanother with the river as background. This painting is an unusual kind of landscape in that it shows anindustrial and commercial scene at a time when most landscape painterspreferred to paint beautiful mountains, rivers and woodlands. And,instead of clear blue skies and bright green fields, Whistler depicted asmoky scene of a muddy tidal river where the sky is a dull overcast.Even the varnished wooden spars on the boats are a golden color, muchlike the color of the river, rather than a brightly colored scene in thecountryside. At a time when most people preferred beautiful scenes,Whistler was unable to sell his more realistic paintings of everydaylife on the river. Whistler also made numbers of etchings of the seaport at London,which show the same kind of attention to realistic detail to be found inthis painting. Other paintings of the river showed it at nighttime andin fog, which gave a poetic feeling to his ideas about the river andcontrast very much with the harsh detail that appears here. ABOUT THE ARTIST Although Whistler was born in Lowell, Mass., he lived most of hislife outside the United States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . Even as a boy, he moved with his familywhen his father was assigned to various tasks as a railroad engineer forthe U.S. Army. At the age of 9, he went to live in St. Petersburg,Russia, where his father was the supervising engineer for a new railroadbeing built for the Czar between St. Petersburg and Moscow. At 10 years of age, his artistic talent had been recognized and hebecame a student at the Imperial Academy of Art in St. Petersburg. Inaddition to his art studies, he was shown artists' works on displayin the palaces of Russian noble families. Later, the family returned to the United States and James followedthe family tradition by entering the Military Academy at West Point. Hisartistic talent was again recognized, this time by the art teacher atWest Point, Robert W. Weir, who was one of the first art teachers in thecountry. Weir encouraged him, but James' heart was not in themilitary, and he was eventually expelled for bad behavior and poorgrades. For some time after leaving West Point, Whistler went from being adraftsman to a cartographer (mapmaker map��mak��er?n.A person who makes maps; a cartographer.mapmak��ing n. ), before deciding at age 21 to goto Paris and become an artist. Luckily, he had learned French while helived in Russia, so he could talk to people in France and understandthem. He received an allowance to live on from his family, but added toit by copying old master paintings in the Louvre Museum Louvre MuseumNational museum and art gallery of France, in Paris. It was built as a royal residence, begun under Francis I in 1546 on the site of a 12th-century fortress. . Once again, hewas not a good student--he didn't follow instructions. During hisstay, however, he did become friends with many young artists who were tolater become important artists. Some of these artists were Paul Renoir,Claude Monet, August Rodin and Gustave Courbet. During these formative years, Whistler discovered the arts of Chinaand Japan, filling his home with porcelain vases, painted fans and otherexamples of Oriental art. Pieces from his collection are to be seen inmany of his pictures. Oriental art was the inspiration that lay behindthe wall paintings of the famous "Peacock Room," which waslater dismantled and brought to America (visitwww.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/online/ peacock/default.htm to learn moreabout the Peacock Room). Whistler decided to live in London, where he was attracted byscenes of the River Thames. The river flows through the heart of Londonand has been a busy seaport for centuries. He painted scenes like theone reproduced here of Wapping, which is part of the dockland districtof the city. He also made etchings of river scenes from which many copies wereprinted. He painted portraits, sometimes of people he saw on thestreets--especially children--and sometimes of wealthy people. But,years were to pass before his portraits became as popular as his otherworks. Whistler found portrait painting to be very slow and difficult. Aperson sitting for one of his portraits might have to sit for him asmany as 70 times before it was finished. This was very difficult for theartist as well as for the sitter. And, quite often, he would spend a dayworking on part of a portrait only to rub off to clean anything by rubbing; to separate by friction; as, to rub off rust s>.See also: Rub all that he had painted atthe end of a day. Two of his most famous portraits were of his mother and of theScottish historian, Thomas Carlyle. Whistler was unusual in that hequite often thought of his paintings as artistic compositions before hethought of them as portraits. For example, the portrait of his motherhas the title Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1: The Artist'sMother. Many other paintings were given musical titles such as Symphonyin White, No. 1: The White Girl and Nocturne nocturne(nŏk`tûrn)[Fr.,=night piece], in music, romantic instrumental piece, free in form and usually reflective or languid in character. John Field wrote the first nocturnes, influencing Chopin in the writing of his 19 nocturnes for piano. in Blue and Gold: OldBattersea Bridge. Whistler also used an unusual signature when signinghis pictures that was formed from his initials (JMW JMW Junior Maine Woodsman ) in the form of abutterfly. A troublesome quality was Whistler's belief that his paintingsalways belonged to him, even though he may have sold them. InWhistler's mind, he was always the real owner of his work and, fromtime to time, would "borrow" paintings and then not returnthem. Not least, Whistler was very quarrelsome quar��rel��some?adj.1. Given to quarreling; contentious. See Synonyms at argumentative, belligerent.2. Marked by quarreling. . He eventually lost allhis friends either by insulting them or being unkind. He didn'tlike being treated in the same way, however, which more than onceresulted in him being involved in expensive court cases.