[Click to enlarge. All images posted with permission from the Freer Gallery of Art. Details follow below.]
Self-marketing in art and design may be more intense than ever but the concept isn't really new. The American expatriate painter James McNeill Whistler (1834 - 1903) had great flair for self-promotion. In 1863, long before
Tony Duquette donned exotic silk robes, Whistler embarked on a new artistic path that would ultimately launch blue-and-white Chinese export porcelain into the English mainstream. Anxious to shed the influence of French realism and develop a more original style, Whistler turned to Chinese decorative arts for inspiration. He began buying ceramic pieces from shops in London, Amsterdam and Paris, and dressing up in Chinese robes.
According to the
Freer Gallery, adopting the fashion, amassing a serious collection of blue and white, and incorporating the sinuous forms and delicate patterns of Kangxi ware into his own paintings allowed Whistler to construct a distinct public persona and artistic style. But ironically, the artist who looked down on popular taste caused a new shopping phenomenon among the English middle-class: the self-expressive porcelain craze, dubbed "Chinamania" by cartoonist George Du Maurier.
In August, a small show,
Chinamania: Whistler and the Victorian Craze for Blue and White, opens at the
Freer Gallery. Visitors will see 23 works of art: eight wash drawings of Kangxi porcelain produced by Whistler for a collector's catalog; related examples of blue and white from the Freer's
Peacock Room; and several paintings, pastels and etchings by Whistler that reflect his interest in Chinese porcelain. This exhibit will also lead into a major reinstallation of
The Peacock Room in 2011.
Since the Victorian era was on my mind, I wanted to quickly mention
Secret Victorians: Contemporary Artists and a 19th-Century Vision. This exhibition explored what seemed to be a "Victorian sensibility" and intellectual curiosity flourishing in British and American art in the late 1990s. Artists including
Elliott Puckette,
Sally Mann and
Kara Walker were represented. I stumbled across the catalog
here.
From the top left: Baluster vase with lid, Qing dynasty, Kangxi reign 1662 - 1722; Detail view and full view, vase, Qing dynasty, Kangxi reign 1662 - 1722; A Chinese porcelain square canister by Whistler, 1878, pencil, ink and wash on cream wove paper. Also shown, a small detail of The Peacock Roomand Linda Merrill's book, The Peacock Room: A Cultural Biography.
[©Michael S. Smith Houses by Michael Smith and Christine Pittel, Rizzoli New York, 2008. Rendering by Mark Matusak.]
Click
here for a past post that shows
Michael Smith's take on The Peacock Room.