‘The morning before the Massacre of St Bartholomew’, by J. M. Whistler

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The morning before the Massacre

J. M. Whistler

Wood engraving by Joseph Swain

5¾ x 4 inches

Once a Week 7 (16 August 1862): 210.

The illustration represents a poem by Walter Thornbury in which a Huguenot lady contemplates her marriage the next day, which she imagines as a purely happy event. However, Whistler takes up on the poem’s implications of forthcoming conflict and uncertainty. [Commentary continues below.]

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Thornbury includes a telling detail – she has bad dreams which have unsettled her, and Whistler suggests her anxiety in the form of a listless pose combined with what is traditionally called an unfixed or ‘nervous line’. Thornbury notes the ‘fickle sunshine’, subject to change, and Whistler captures the sense of a moment that is far from fixed or stable.

Bibliography

Once a Week 7 (June–December 1862).

Created 30 October 2020