Marjorie S. Garfield
Ponte Vecchio, Florence, 1936
Gift to the museum, Syracuse University Art Museum
An American in Venice: James McNeill Whistler and
His Legacy Thirty-five prints by the artist and his followers
March 1 - June 27, 2021
Peeler Art Center, Upper Gallery
Featuring 35 prints of James McNeill Whistler and his contemporaries, this exhibition highlights the role of the artist as illustrator of sights unseen. Whistler sought to capture a “Venice of the Venetians,” and he braved the cold, damp winter of 1879 to explore the city in search of new subjects that would set his art apart from the view paintings that had defined Venetian cityscapes up to that point. His prints depict palazzo entries, private courtyards and sweeping views over the canal where Venice’s most famous monuments appear rarely and in the background. His career-long interest in the effects of light and water were enhanced by the technical innovations that he developed in this period and these, along with his novel subject matters, created a vision of Venice that was unprecedented in its originality.