ABSTRACT
In a key 1876 essay entitled “The Impressionists and Edouard Manet,” poet Stéphane Mallarmé counted James McNeill Whistler among only seven artists deserving the label “Impressionist,” defined as those embodying the most progressive aesthetic theory of which Manet was the paradigm. However, Mallarmé added a telling disclaimer: “I should like to join Whistler [in my discussion], who is so well appreciated in France, both by critics and the world of amateurs, had he not chosen England as a field of his success.”1 Mallarmé then proceeded to analyze Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot and Pierre-Auguste Renoir – all French artists – in reference to Manet’s modernity, but eliminated any commentary about Whistler.2 Mallarmé’s dilemma is revealing and testifies to a barrier that continues to prevent Whistler’s full integration into a study of French art during a critical period in which he fully participated.
