Editing Salon des Refusés (section)

===''Symphony in White no 1''===
{{main|Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl}}
{{Infobox Artwork
| image_file=Whistler James Symphony in White no 1 (The White Girl) 1862.jpg
| image_size=235px
| title=''Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl''
| artist=[[James McNeill Whistler]]
| year=1861–62
| medium=[[Oil painting|Oil on canvas]]
| height_metric=215
| width_metric=108
| height_imperial=84.5
| width_imperial=42.5
| metric_unit=cm
| imperial_unit=in
| city=Washington, D.C.
| museum=[[National Gallery of Art]]
| italic title=no
}}
In 1861, after returning to Paris for a time, [[James Abbott McNeill Whistler]] painted his first famous work, ''[[Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl]]''. This portrait of his mistress and business manager [[Joanna Hiffernan]] was created as a simple study in white; however, others saw it differently. The critic [[Jules-Antoine Castagnary]] thought the painting an allegory of a new bride's lost innocence. Others linked it to [[Wilkie Collins]]'s ''[[The Woman in White (novel)|The Woman in White]]'', a popular novel of the time, or various other literary sources. In England, some considered it a painting in the [[Pre-Raphaelite]] manner.<ref>Anderson and Koval, pgs. 106, 119</ref> In the painting, Hiffernan holds a lily in her left hand and stands upon a wolf skin rug (interpreted by some to represent masculinity and lust) with the wolf's head staring menacingly at the viewer.

Countering criticism by traditionalists, Whistler's supporters insisted that the painting was "an apparition with a spiritual content" and that it epitomized his theory that art should be concerned essentially with the arrangement of colors in harmony, not with a literal portrayal of the natural world.<ref>Peters, pg. 17</ref>

Whistler started working on ''The White Girl'' shortly after December 3, 1861, with the intention of submitting it to the prestigious [[Royal Academy summer exhibition|annual exhibition]] of the [[Royal Academy]]. In spite of bouts of illness, he finished the painting by April.<ref name="Sp300">Spencer (1998), p. 300.</ref> The white paint Whistler used contained lead, and his work on the seven-foot-high canvas had given the artist a dose of lead poisoning.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Judgement of Paris|last=King|first=Ross|publisher=Walker Publishing Inc.|year=2006|location=New York|pages=61}}</ref> The portrait was refused for exhibition at the conservative Royal Academy in London.  Whistler then submitted the painting to the Paris Salon of 1863, where it was also rejected. The public was able to see the painting exhibited with other rejected works, in the Salon des Refusés.  The Salon des Refusés was an event sanctioned by Emperor [[Napoleon III]], to appease the large number of artists who joined forces to protest the harsh jury decisions in 1863<ref name=":0" /> Of the over 5,000 paintings submitted in 1863, 2,217 were rejected.  

In a letter to [[George du Maurier]] in early 1862 Whistler wrote of the painting:

{{quote|... a woman in a beautiful white cambric dress, standing against a window which filters the light through a transparent white muslin curtain – but the figure receives a strong light from the right and therefore the picture, barring the red hair, is one gorgeous mass of brilliant white.<ref name="Taylor27">Taylor (1978), p. 27.</ref>}}

Whistler submitted the painting to the Academy, but according to Joanna Hiffernan, he expected it to be rejected.<ref name="Sp300"/> The previous year, in 1861, another painting had caused a minor scandal. [[Edwin Henry Landseer]]'s ''The Shrew Tamed'' showed a horse with a woman resting on the ground nearby. The model was named as Ann Gilbert,<ref>The Times, Saturday, May 04, 1861; pg. 12; Issue 23924; col A</ref> a noted equestrienne of the period,<ref>She offered her professional services to render ladies' horses "quiet, safe and pleasant to ride":''The Times'', Friday, Jun 20, 1856; pg. 2; Issue 22399; col A</ref> however it was soon rumored that it was actually [[Catherine Walters]], the notorious London [[courtesan]].<ref>Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Vol. 90 (550) Aug 1861 Page 211:'"The Shrew Tamed" - a high-bred horse of soft silken coat, dappled with play of light and shade as on velvet, subdued by a "pretty horsebreaker", is certainly unfortunate as a subject. This picture has been made the more notorious by "The Belgravian Lament", which took the well-known rider as a text whereon to point a moral. We hope it will now be felt by Sir Edwin Landseer and his friends that the intrusion of "pretty horsebreakers" on the walls of the Academy is not less to be regretted than their presence in Rotten Row.'</ref> Whistler's painting was reminiscent enough of Landseer's that the judges were wary of admitting it.<ref>Spencer (1998), p. 310.</ref> ''White Girl'' was submitted to the Academy along with three etchings, all three of which were accepted, while the painting was not.<ref>Anderson & Koval (1994), pp. 129–30.</ref> Whistler exhibited it at the small Berners Street Gallery in London instead.<ref name="Taylor27"/> The next year, Whistler tried to have the painting exhibited at the ''Salon'' in Paris – the official art exhibition of the [[Académie des Beaux-Arts]] – but it was rejected there as well.<ref name="Craven">Craven (2003), pp. 342–3.</ref> Instead, it was accepted at the alternative ''Salon des Refusés'' – the "exhibition of rejects" that opened on May 15, two weeks after the official ''Salon''.<ref>Weintraub (1974), p. 84.</ref>

Although Whistler's painting was widely noticed, he was upstaged by Manet's more shocking painting ''Le déjeuner sur l'herbe''.<ref name="Craven"/> The controversy surrounding the paintings was described in [[Émile Zola]]'s novel ''[[L'Œuvre]]'' (1886).<ref name="Sp300"/> The reception Whistler's painting received was mostly favourable, however, and largely vindicated him after the rejection he had experienced both in London and in Paris.<ref name="Newton">Newton & MacDonald (1978), p. 151.</ref> The painting was greatly admired by his colleagues and friends Manet, the painter [[Gustave Courbet]] and the poet [[Charles Baudelaire]]. The art critic [[Théophile Thoré-Bürger]] saw it in the tradition of [[Francisco Goya|Goya]] and [[Diego Velázquez|Velázquez]]. There were, however, those who were less favourable; certain French critics saw the English Pre-Raphaelite trend as somewhat eccentric.<ref>Spencer (1998), p. 308.</ref>