Purple and Rose: The Lange Leizen, of the Six Marks, by James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834

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Purple and Rose: The Lange Leizen, of the Six Marks

James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)

1864

Oil on canvas

Height: 92.08 cm (36.25 in.), Width: 61.6 cm (24.25 in.)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

Source: The Athenaeum website (which states that the image is in the public domain)

In their biography of Whistler, Elizabeth and Joseph Pennell say: "It was not Japan he wanted to paint, but the beautiful colour and form of Japanese detail, as the titles he afterwards found for the pictures explain: Purple and Rose, Caprice in Purple and Gold, Harmony in Flesh Colour and Green, Rose and Silver" (122). [Mouse over the text for links. The commentary continues below.]

"Harmony was what he sought," the Pennells add,

though no Dutchman ever surpassed their delicacy of detail, truth of texture, intricacy of pattern. And yet we are always conscious in them of the artificial structure as in none of his other work; the models do not live in their Japanese draperies; Eastern lutes and hangings are out of place on the mist-laden banks of the Thames ; the device is too obvious. [122]

In this particular case, there is no sense of a domestic scene. Whistler's mother had apparently said that the "several pieces of china & a pretty fan are arranged as if for purchasers" (qtd. in Spencer 30). — Jacqueline Banerjee

Related Material

Bibliography

Pennell, Elizabeth Robins and Joseph. Life of James McNeill Whistler. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: Lippincott / London: Heinemann, 1908. Contributed by Whitney Museum of American Art, Frances Mulhall Achilles Library. Web. 3 February 2018.

Spencer, Robin. Whistler. Rev. ed. London: Studio Editions, 1993.

Created 30 January 2018