Margaret F. MacDonald

Dr. Patricia De Montfort

Catalog of the exhibition of the same name held at: Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, from October 16, 2013, through January 12, 2014; Addison Gallery of American Art, Philips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, from February 1, 2013, through April 13, 2014; and Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., May 2-17, 2014.

Whistler and the Thames

An American in London

Anna Mathilda McNeill Whistler

American painter James McNeill Whistler probably never expected the portrait of his mother that graces the cover of this book to become a cultural icon. Begun on a whim when another model failed to show up for a session, the painting, familiarly known simply as "Whistler's Mother," has become one of the best known and most beloved in the world and now hangs in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris. Nor, we can be sure, did Anna McNeill Whistler expect that her "cook book" would one day be published and thereby enjoyed by myriad readers beyond her own family. Irreverently referred to by her son as her "Bible," the manuscript book was kept faithfully by Mrs. Whistler of many years and contained recipes for such varied and delectable dishes as bread-and-butter pudding, "oisters," "mackroons," "whigs," quince marmalade, and pickled walnuts. Bequeathed by Whistler's sister-in-law, along with other books and letters from his estate, to the University of Glasgow, the manuscript has been edited for this publication by Margaret MacDonald, research fellow at the Centre for Whistler Studies at the university. MacDonald also provides a fascinating account of the Whistler household in the United States, Russia, and Britain, offering a rare and delightful glimpse into nineteenth-century family life. The recipes are both delicious and easy to prepare; just in reading them, one can sense the flavors and aromas of good home cooking. They are presented both in Mrs. Whistler's words-"To a pint of pulped apples add the juice of a Lemon and a little of the peel shred fine, 5 eggs and a gill of cream . . ."-and in terms more familiar to the modern cook. Where deciphering listed ingredients-such as rose-water, emptins, isinglass, or pearl ash-might otherwise prove perplexing, these terms are fully explained and their modern successors substituted. Among the illustrations in this new edition of Margaret MacDonald's 1979 classic are some of Whistler's most evocative drawings and prints of shopping, cooking, and dining, many in full color, as well as portraits of Whistler and his mother and pages from the original cook book.

Whistler's Mother's Cook Book

James McNeill Whistler

In "Palaces in the Night", MacDonald looks at a key period in James Whistler's career, examining his unique vision of Venice and his development of the medium of etching. 120 illustrations.

Whistler in Venice

Palaces in the Night

A fascinating look at the partnership of artist James McNeill Whistler and his chief model, Joanna Hiffernan, and the iconic works of art resulting from their life together “[A] lavish volume. . . . Illuminating. . . . MacDonald’s deep research has . . . unearthed important new facts.”—Gioia Diliberto, Wall Street Journal In 1860 James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) and Joanna Hiffernan (1839–1886) met and began a significant professional and personal relationship. Hiffernan posed as a model for many of Whistler’s works, including his controversial Symphony in White paintings, a trilogy that fascinated and challenged viewers with its complex associations with sex and morality, class and fashion, academic and realist art, Victorian popular fiction, aestheticism and spiritualism. This luxuriously illustrated volume provides the first comprehensive account of Hiffernan’s partnership with Whistler throughout the 1860s and 1870s—a period when Whistler was forging a reputation as one of the most innovative and influential artists of his generation. A series of essays discusses how Hiffernan and Whistler overturned artistic conventions and sheds light on their interactions with contemporaries, including Gustave Courbet, for whom she also modeled. Packed with new insights into the creation, marketing, and cultural context of Whistler’s iconic works, this study also traces their resonance for his fellow artists, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edgar Degas, John Singer Sargent, and Gustav Klimt.

Margaret F. MacDonald

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