Arrangement in Business: The Art Markets and the Career of James McNeill Whistler

Petri, G. (2011) Arrangement in Business: The Art Markets and the Career of James McNeill Whistler. Series: Studien zur Kunstgeschichte, 191. Georg Olms Verlag: Hildesheim, Germany. ISBN 9783487146300

Abstract

Ever since John Ruskin dismissed James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) as a coxcomb asking exaggerated prices for bad paintings, the American artist has been labeled an entrepreneurial self-promoter. For the first time, this study examines in detail the economic side of Whistler’s entire career. The artist’s professional trajectories are traced with the help of a database recording prices for his works between 1855 and 1903, making the structure of his international lifetime markets transparent. The book analyses Whistler’s exhibition strategies in London, Paris and New York, and the artist’s relationships with patrons and institutions. Whistler’s transactions with art dealers, commercial galleries and collectors are examined, and business aspects of his artistic decisions are discussed together with commercial implications of the Aesthetic Movement. Whistler emerges as a first modernist successfully making up strategies of distinction.

• Item Type: Books
• Keywords: James McNeill Whistler; Victorian Art Market
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Petri, Dr Grischka
• Authors: Petri, G.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions; N Fine Arts > ND Painting; N Fine Arts > NE Print media; N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > History of Art
• Publisher: Georg Olms Verlag
• ISBN: 9783487146300
• Copyright Holders: Grischka Petri, G.Olms Verlag