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by Angelle Vinet (Author), Alan Barnett (Designed by)
This book completes years of Whistler scholarship identified by historical documentation on James McNeill Whistler's masterpiece, Harmony in Black, No.10, painted at the height of his artistic creation. Historical records will identify with scientific evidence the hand of Whistler in his evolution of painterly language completing his series of three, beginning with, Arrangement in Grey and Black, No.1 Portrait of the Artist's Mother,1871, then Arrangement in Grey and Black, No.2, Portrait of Thomas Carlyle,1872-73, and finishing with Harmony in Black, No.10. No other nineteenth century master painted in Whistler's hand identified by his inventive dialogue in synthesis with ten Old Masters, including Diego Velázquez, and Japanese painting. Created at the pinnacle of his output after his successful Venice trip in 1885, upon completing his picture he requested his followers to paint after him with numerous artists and masters creating more than one painting. Paintings are documents of their creators, and rarely in art history does a painting record so many aspects of authorship, including scientific documentation of X-rays, Infrared images, two forensic reports, notable placement in Whistler's oeuvre and its importance in nineteenth-century painting. Whistler's followers and colleagues who painted after Harmony in Black, No.10, left behind a plethora of paintings, identify this painting by the hand of Whistler and clarify its important placement in nineteenth century painting.
