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Mortimer Menpes
Port Adelaide, Australia, 1855 – Pangbourne, England, 1938
Portrait of Whistler in White Ducks, circa 1879-81
Drypoint and chine collé
Gift of the children of L.M Tonkin, G1966.2.81
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In this unusual portrait we see a student capturing an impression—or, rather, five impressions—of his teacher. The subject is James McNeill Whistler, a London-based American artist, and the portraitist, his pupil, Mortimer Menpes. Why the varying angles and expressions? Perhaps Menpes is trying to suggest that a single pose cannot convey the complexity of the man he studied under. Whistler’s penetrating gaze sets up a knowing relationship between the artist and sitter. This sense of intimacy and the experimental nature of the composition suggest Whistler’s collaboration in creating his image.
In fact, Whistler was a master at cultivating his own celebrity. He constructed a range of personas to promote his work. Through self-portraits, published writings, and a flashy outward appearance, Whistler alternately presented himself as bohemian, dandy, and temperamental avant-garde genius. Menpes’s portrait both reveals and maintains Whistler’s enigmatic, multi-faceted personality.
En esta obra un tanto inusual podemos observar las cinco impresiones que unestudiante plasmó retratando a su maestro. El sujeto representado es James McNeill Whistler, un artista norteamericano radicado en Londres, y su retratista es su estudiante Mortimer Menpes. ¿Por qué la profusión de ángulos y expresiones? Quizás Menpes esté intentando sugerir que una sola pose no puede comunicar la complejidad del hombre bajo quien estudió su ofi cio. La mirada penetrante de Whistler establece una complicidad entre artista y sujeto. La composición evoca cierta sensación de intimidad y denota un carácter experimental lo cual sugieren en que Whistler posiblemente colaboró en la creación de su propia imagen.
Whistler cultivó un estado de celebridad de manera soberbia, habiendo inventado y trabajado bajo una serie de seudónimos para promover su obra. A través de autorretratos, textos publicados y una fl amante personalidad, Whistler se presentaba de distintas maneras ante el mundo: como bohemio, como dandy, como genio vanguardista y temperamental. Este retrato de Menpes revela y acentúa la enigmática y polifacética personalidad de Whistler.