The Marble Palace
National Museum of Asian Art

The Marble Palace

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) · 1880

Chalk and pastel on brown paper
National Museum of Asian Art
CC0 — Public Domain
National Museum of Asian Art

"Whistler often used the chalk on its side, sometimes with firm pressure, to create passages of strong scumbling. While simple charcoal outlines give structure to the architecture, a lightly scumbled haze embraces the old Marble Palace itself. In alternating passages of clarity through charcoal lines and obscurity through nearly evanescent pastel, Whistler evokes a world of dreams, a time when perception and enigma intermingle."

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