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Art for Art’s Sake | Film Odyssey

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Until the early 1860s, Whistler painted realistic portrayals of London life. And was very successful at it. But at the beginning of that decade, he determined to make a painting that would be admired for its own sake, rather than for its subject. He had, while living in Paris, become familiar with the philosophy of French critic Théophile Gautier, who argued a painter should make art for it’s own sake (“l’art pour l’art”) and not for any other purpose. If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond this. – James McNeill Whistler, The Red Rag “Symphony in White No.1: The White Girl,” 1862, Oil on canvas, Harris Whittemore Collection. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington In 1861, Whistler made a picture, The White Girl, with this new approach in mind. Joanna Hiffernan, his red-haired mistress, was the model. The artist painted

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