ABSTRACT
At Wildenstein & Co. there: is a large exhibition called "From Realism to Symbolism: James McNeill Whistler and His World," which has been organized by the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University in cooperation with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Whistler was a legend in his own lifetime, and he has been something of an enigma ever since. In London, to be sure, Whistler found ample space in which to indulge his taste for art-world politics but the whole English side of his career only underscored certain defects in his character without adding anything essential to his aesthetic development. A career as complex as Whistler's, traversing the French, British, and American art worlds, with an influence extending to virtually every part of Europe, is not a wise subject for an exhibition based on the artist's "friendships and connections”.
