Palaces in the night

the long version

"The year 1879 found the American artist James McNeill Whistler in London, in the dire financial straits which led to his bankruptcy. In September, armed with a contract from the Fine Art Society for a set of twelve etchings, he sought refuge in Venice. With his model and mistress Maud Franklin he stayed there for some fourteen months. The unique and timeless beauty of Venice inspired some of his greatest works: atmospheric oil paintings of Venetian nights, a hundred vivid pastels, and fifty of Whistler's finest etchings." "This illustrated book discusses the whole range of Whistler's Venetian work. The views he chose ranged from quiet canals to Renaissance palaces. He found beauty in intimate scenes of ordinary life, drawing fishermen and bead-stringers at their work. Whistler's approach to Venice, and his selection and treatment of subjects, casts revealing light on this creative process and shows his changing artistic response to the city itself and to individual subjects."--Jacket.