Josie Landback Colloquium September 28 2011, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Room 203 Frick Fine Arts

"Sketching Narratives: Debating Intentionality in Whistler's The Artist in His Studio (1865)"

Scholars from 1905 to 1998 used imagined narratives to construe the value of artistic intentionality on an unusual early self-portrait by American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), now titled The Artist in His Studio (1865).  In this paper, Josie examines the painting's unconventional composition and history to reconsider the narrative framing of intentionality and present some alternatives.