In Search of Whistler

Chelsea Embankment 

Today was our day to explore Chelsea to look for places where James McNeill Whistler lived in London. Whistler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts — his birthplace is an interesting little museum — where his father was employed as an engineer. The family moved to Russia when he was a boy when his father was hired to build Russian railroads. He returned to the States to attend West Point and for his short military career, he drew maps. A typical Third Culture Kid — one raised in more than one country/culture, therefore never quite belonging to any one culture, but to a hybrid Third Culture (e.g. Barack Obama, my daughter Susan) — Whistler hotfooted it back to Europe when he was free of the army. First Paris, then settling in London for the rest of his life. Whistler's Mother was indeed painted in London.

Bob has always been a fan of Whistler's work, but a few special exhibitions in recent years kindled an interest in Whistler's complicated and interesting life. In the last half of the 19th century, Chelsea was the  hub of London's creative art community. Whistler lived in several houses over the years, most of them on Cheyne Walk, considered one of London's most prestigious addresses despite the noisy Thames Embankment road running in front of it.

One of Whistler's residences

Cheyne Walk has had many famous residents over the centuries. Henry VIII built a summer home here.

Thomas More was arrested and taken to the Tower from his Cheyne Walk  home

A memorial to Sir Hans Sloane founder of the British Museum

Another great English painter, Turner lived on Cheyne Walk

At the end western end of Cheyne Walk is Cremorne Gardens, a small park where a second installation of bird houses has been sited.

The park on the site of a 19th century pleasure garden has an old concrete pier where you can walk out into the river.

After an excellent lunch at the Chelsea Ram pub, found using Bob's new smartphone, we stopped off at the National Trust's Thomas Carlyle's House on Upper Cheyne Walk where he and his suffering wife Jane lived for many many years.

Jane's difficulties with servants and marriage to a celebrity spouse are detailed in The Carlyles at Home by Thea Holme, published by Persephone Press.

Jane and Thomas at home by Robert Tait. The rooms have been decorated to match

Thomas Carlyle was a hugely important, public intellectual and historian in Victorian England. The displays in the house include quotations from famous people on their opinions of Carlyle and his work. The British view was that he was a sage whose work would live forever. The Americans seem not as impressed. Margaret Fuller said, he was a blowhard who you couldn't shut up once he started talking. Walt Whitman said, he couldn't see for the life of him what Carlyle's reputation was based on. Edgar Allan Poe said, he will only be remembered as a butt for sarcasm. And you may well ask, who the heck is Thomas Carlyle?

Then home, and a nice surprise with Susan and Cato taking us out for dinner at a Tapas restaurant in Belsize Park. They are taking the car to the Reading Festival tomorrow.