James Abbott McNeill Whistler: Battersea Reach.

From the little systematic reading I've done about the life of James Abbot McNeill Whistler, he was a bit more self-consciously promoting himself as an artist than I'm comfortable with, or than I admire in a human being.

But I'm asking myself about his qualities as a person. If I go down that path I fear most of the accomplishments of the human race will soon be negated.

As an artist? That's another matter.

Stretching the sensibilities of the time, as I understand it his work was based on color and composition, with content being nearly irrelevant. Thus we have the portrait of his mother, he called simply Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1. I think it fair to say that this work, for all its extraordinary power to captivate through generations of viewers, was only one step way from the many self portraits Rembrandt became famous for.

Whistler made many paintings at Battersea, an area of the London, England borough of Wandsworth. It sits on the south side of the River Thames, historically a farmland, then a center of industry, more recently known for its wealth. The Reach is the stretch of the River along the northern town limits. True to his goal of being nearly content free, many of his paintings were nocturnes, low light and therefore subtle color.

Here we see Nocturne: Blue and Silver—Battersea Reach