On Thursday, July 16 we visited the Art
Institute of Chicago to see Whistler and Roussel: Linked Visions. The
paintings, drawings, and especially the prints of friends James McNeill
Whistler and Theodore Roussel are on view along with letters, menus, copper
plates, and Roussel frames. This wide-ranging show also explores their
relationships with colleagues Frank Duveneck, Francis Seymour Haden, Paul Cesar
Hellue, Mortimer Mempes, Joseph Pennell, and Walter Sickert.
Curators Meg Hausberg and Victoria Sancho Lobis
wrote in the on-line catalogue, “We hope that this exhibition will remind those
who already admire James McNeill Whistler of his remarkable commitment to the
art of printmaking, and at the same time, we aim to inspire new admiration for
Theodore Roussel, whose quieter nature and preference for process over product
has kept him well in the shadow of his more prolific and flamboyant peer.” It
is a remarkable privilege to stand within reach of Whistler’s beautifully inked
views of London or Venice and with Roussel’s intimate daily scenes, his
progressive states and experiments, or his amazingly complex color
compositions.
Link to on-line catalogue:https://publications.artic.edu/whistler/reader/linkedvisions/section/409
