Whistler was an interesting artist. He was fascinated with the ordinary jobs most people did, running shops, making clothes, building bridges, and though he necessarily had to take commissions from the wealthy, for instance in doing portraits like the one immediately below, his focus was clearly elsewhere when he didn’t need to do otherwise economically.
Like the Impresionists, Whistler was fascinated with surface phenomena, the way light affected how things look, or the difference color or the lack thereof made. And Whistler did much of his work in pen or pencil, rather than with paint. Here we see his interest in bridges….
Boats, and seaside places were a constant interest…
Even Mills and Mines got his attention…
You get the impression he was not exactly thrilled urban renewal and the effects of the industrial revolution, much like Dickens concern in several novels with child labor.
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