Whistler, un Américain en Europe
Edwige Kertès
1995 - 26 min - Betacam SP - Couleur - France

Whistler (1834-1903) was born in the United States, and studied in Paris where, after having established his career in London, he was to find glory. The extraordinary path his life and work were to take still remain to be discovered.
It is high time this enormously talented artist recieves the justice he deserved. Therefore, the goal of this film is to better acquaint people with the life and the work of Whistler. From Paris where, he had very close ties with the realist movement, Fantin-Latour and Courbet notably, he shared with Manet the redoutable privilege of being the painter the most talked about among the Refusés of 1863. In London, at the end of the 50's, where he showed a fascination for the Japanese arts and the river Thames, he began his career as a portrait artist. The portrait of his mother (as famous in the United States as the "Mona Lisa") or the "Portrait of Carlyle" are real masterpieces. But even then , the public and the critics found his work difficult to understand and where at times hostile. In 1879, he left London for Italy, then Paris, where this original, cultivated and independent artist and dandy was given a war welcome.