Venice through Whistler's eyes. (Current and Coming).

This year marks the centennial of James McNeil Whistler's death, and a number of exhibitions and related events have been organized to commemorate it. Since Whistler is claimed by more than one country (principally England and the United States) the events are being held on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Two museums in Washington, D.C., are opening shows this month. The Corcoran Gallery of Art has organized an exhibition entitled Whistler and His Circle in Venice, which opens on February 8 and is on view through May 5. The Freer Gallery of Art is showing fifty of the artist's pastels from its permanent collection. That show is entitled Whistler in Venice: The Pastels and is on view through June 15.

The story of Whistler's visit to Venice really begins with the now infamous libel suit he instigated in 1878 against John Ruskin following Ruskin's denigrating review of the now revered painting Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (1875; Detroit Institute of Arts). Whistler won the suit and was awarded one farthing, but he was ordered to pay his barrister, which pushed his already precarious financial state into bankruptcy The Fine Art Society in London, where Whistler frequently showed his work, came to his aid by commissioning him to go to Venice for three months in order to produce a dozen etchings in time to show before the Christmas holidays. Whistler arrived in Venice in September 1879 and ended up staying fourteen months. While there, he produced more than fifty prints and some one hundred pastels that are generally considered to mark a turning point in his career. The exhibition at the Corcoran ...