{"id":2029,"date":"2014-07-22T09:46:46","date_gmt":"2014-07-22T13:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/noaacoastsurvey.wordpress.com\/?p=2029"},"modified":"2014-07-22T09:46:46","modified_gmt":"2014-07-22T13:46:46","slug":"whistler-hints-at-artistic-flair-during-coast-survey-stint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/whistler-hints-at-artistic-flair-during-coast-survey-stint\/","title":{"rendered":"Whistler hints at artistic flair during Coast Survey stint"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Darcy Herman<\/em>
\nOver its 200-year history, NOAA\u2019s Office of Coast Survey has employed men who are preeminent in their fields. Most of the time, their career successes follow traditional professional trajectories \u2012 but at least one Coast Survey alum\u2019s ultimate renown was born of his failure at Coast Survey.
\nJames McNeill Whistler<\/a> (1834 \u2013 1903), the American artist best known for his painting colloquially known as \u201cWhistler\u2019s Mother<\/a>,\u201d was briefly and unhappily employed in the drawing division of the U.S. Coast Survey\u00a0in 1854 and 1855.
\n
\nWhistler came to Coast Survey at the age of 20, after he was asked to leave West Point over an argument with a professor of chemistry there. As Whistler tells it<\/a>, “The Professor would not agree with me that silicon was a gas, but declared it was a metal; and as we could come to no agreement in the matter, it was suggested \u2014 all in the most courteous and correct West Point way \u2012 that perhaps I had better leave the Academy.\u201d
\nEnter Secretary of War and fellow West Point expellee Jefferson Davis, who, after interviewing Whistler and learning of his talent in drawing, recommended him to an open post at Coast Survey. There Whistler met John Ross Key, and the two became good friends as well as office mates. In a memoir<\/a>, Key recalls that Whistler was a bad fit for the job. \u201cThe accuracy required in the making of maps and surveys, where mathematical calculations are the foundation of projections upon which are drawn the topographical or hydrographical conventional signs, was not to Whistler’s liking, and the laborious application involved was beyond his nature, or inconsistent with it,\u201d Key wrote. Apparently, Whistler\u2019s nature was also inconsistent with regular office hours. Making a leisurely arrival to Coast Survey, Whistler once claimed \u201cI was not too late; the office opened too early.\u201d
\nWhen he did produce drawings, Whistler was often distracted, making small sketches in the margins of charts or on scraps of paper. One of these idle sketches was of his friend Key seated at his sketch board. Frustrated with the effort, Whistler threw the sketch of Key<\/a> on the floor, where Key retrieved and saved it.
\n

\"sketch<\/a>
Whistler’s sketch of John Ross Key<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nWhistler\u2019s work appears on two Coast Survey sketches. One, described by E.R. and J. Pennell<\/a>, was found on a copperplate and saved by Whistler\u2019s Coast Survey office mate, John Ross Key. It depicts a rocky shore, with sketches of several people, something Whistler was fond of drawing on many surfaces \u2012 including the walls of the stairway leading down to the office of his boss, Coast Survey Superintendent Alexander Bache<\/a>.
\n
\"copperplate<\/a>
Key saved Whistler’s copperplate etching<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

On the Sketch of Anacapa Island (1854)<\/a>, Whistler etched the view of the eastern extremity of the island and added birds flying overhead. When he was scolded for the addition, Whistler replied, \u201cSurely the birds don\u2019t detract from the sketch. Anacapa Island couldn\u2019t look as blank as that map did before I added the birds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sketch<\/a>
Sketch of Anacapa Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nAlthough he was criticized for including nonessential decoration on official government charts, the results of his doodling and experiments on copper plates showed Whistler\u2019s true mastery of etching technique<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a technique he learned while employed at Coast Survey and later used to great success and reasonable profit as an iconic American artist.
\n(For more information on Whistler, see Stanley Weintraub\u2019s Whistler: A Biography<\/em>, published in 1974 by Weybright and Talley.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Darcy Herman Over its 200-year history, NOAA\u2019s Office of Coast Survey has employed men who are preeminent in their fields. Most of the time, their career successes follow traditional professional trajectories \u2012 but at least one Coast Survey alum\u2019s ultimate renown was born of his failure at Coast Survey. James McNeill Whistler (1834 \u2013 … <\/p>\n

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