Current Activity
Major research projects include:
Whistler Paintings Project
This project was led by Professor Margaret MacDonald and Dr Grischka Petri, University of Bonn, and funded by the Chancellor’s Fund, University of Glasgow, The Leverhulme Trust, the Lunder Foundation and others, and resulted in a fully illustrated and annotated online catalogues raisonnés of Whistler’s 500 oil paintings and 1800 works on paper.
Whistler & Watercolour
This initiative was led by Dr Patricia de Montfort, University of Glasgow, is a collaboration with the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, and Tate Britain. It used art historical research and technical analysis to investigate the materials and context of Whistler’s watercolours and the results were presented at an exhibition at the Hunterian (6 September 2013 - 23 February 2014).
Louise Jopling
Whistler’s friend and contemporary, Louise Jopling (1843 –1933) was a leading woman artist and teacher in Victorian London. This research project, led by Dr Patricia de Montfort, aims to document Jopling’s career and investigate the context within which women artists practised in the 19th century.
Exhibition Culture in London 1878 – 1908
This project, led by Dr Patricia de Montfort, documents the history of exhibitions in late 19th-century London, including many exhibitions related to Whistler and his circle. It will portray the world of commercial art dealers, artist-led exhibition societies and clubs by recording the vast spectrum of art displays available to the Victorian gallery visitor.
Whistler Etchings Project, completed 2012
This major project, funded by the University of Glasgow, the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Paul Mellon Centre for British Art, the Lunder Foundation, and others, and led by Professor Margaret MacDonald, University of Glasgow, explored Whistler’s creative process as an etcher and printer. It was based on analysis of his 490 etchings, including copper plates and multiple states, and used the holdings at the University of Glasgow, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Colby College, and other major collections.
The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler, completed 2010
This edition of Whistler correspondence, 1855–1903, comprising some 10,000 letters to and from Whistler, was supported by the British Academy, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Getty Grant Program, the John Sloan Memorial Trust, and Patricia Cornwell Enterprises.
Whistler Consortium
This partnership between the University of Glasgow, the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (and more recently the Art Institute of Chicago), ran from 2010-24 to promote collaborative research, exhibitions and publications related to Whistler and his circle. The consortium was funded by the Lunder Foundation. Lunder supported activity at the University of Glasgow has included the major Hunterian exhibition, Whistler: Art & Legacy (2021) and the Whistler Pastels technical art history project (2022-4).
Whistler, Nature and Science
In 2019, History of Art at the University of Glasgow and The Hunterian collaborated with the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the History of Art Department at the University of Cambridge, and the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, to explore 'Whistler, Nature and Science' through a public study day.
This complemented The Hunterian travelling exhibition 'Whistler and Nature' and was part of the 2019 Cambridge Science Festival.
Selected talks from the event were audio-recorded, and are available on the following webpage:
The Hunterian at Kelvin Hall
This ambitious project will provide high-standard storage, conservation, research, teaching and learning facilities for The Hunterian’s reserve collections, including the Whistler Collection. Developed in partnership with Glasgow Life and Scottish Screen Archive (National Library of Scotland) and with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, it is scheduled for completion in 2016.
Exhibitions
Recent exhibitions and loans from the University’s Whistler Collections include the following:
Whistler, the Butterfly Effect, (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, 24 May-22 September 2024)
Whistler: Art and Legacy, major retrospective (The Hunterian, 9 July – 31 October 2021).
Whistler and Nature, UK touring exhibition (Compton Verney, Warwickshire; Laing Art Gallery Newcastle, and Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 2018/19).
An American in London: Whistler and the Thames, international touring exhibition (Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, Addison Gallery, Andover, Mass., and National Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC, 16 October 2013-17 August 2014).
Mortimer Menpes, Art Gallery of South Australia (14 June – 13 September 2014).
Whistler: A Retrospective, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (13 September–16 November 2014) and the Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa (6 December 2014–1 March 2015)
The Conversation c. 1890–4
Pastel
© The Hunterian