United States Military Academy: Song of the Graduates (sheet music cover)
This sheet music cover is adorned with an image that Whistler designed while a student at the United States Military Academy at West Point. The oval image, framed by an ornamental border, shows two cadets in uniform standing in a landscape overlooking the Hudson River with text below crediting "Cadet Whistler" as designer and another cadet as lyricist.
Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Whistler had moved with his family to St. Petersburg, Russia as a boy, where his father, George Washington Whistler worked a railroad engineer. He studied art and spent some time in London, where his half-sister lived after marrying the doctor and amateur etcher Seymour Haden. When Whistler senior died of cholera in 1849, his mother returned to the United States and eventually settled in Baltimore. Sixteen-year old James enrolled at his father's alma mater, West Point, in 1851 but had difficulty in adapting to the school's strict demands. After accumulating many demerits and failing chemistry, he was expelled in 1853. This print demonstrates his artisitic gifts at the age of eighteen.
Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Whistler had moved with his family to St. Petersburg, Russia as a boy, where his father, George Washington Whistler worked a railroad engineer. He studied art and spent some time in London, where his half-sister lived after marrying the doctor and amateur etcher Seymour Haden. When Whistler senior died of cholera in 1849, his mother returned to the United States and eventually settled in Baltimore. Sixteen-year old James enrolled at his father's alma mater, West Point, in 1851 but had difficulty in adapting to the school's strict demands. After accumulating many demerits and failing chemistry, he was expelled in 1853. This print demonstrates his artisitic gifts at the age of eighteen.
Artwork Details
- Title: United States Military Academy: Song of the Graduates (sheet music cover)
- Artist: After James McNeill Whistler (American, Lowell, Massachusetts 1834–1903 London)
- Lithographer: Sarony & Major (New York, NY)
- Date: 1852
- Medium: Lithograph printed in black ink on cream wove paper
- Dimensions: sheet: 13 1/16 x 10 1/16 in. (33.2 x 25.6 cm)
- Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gift of Paul F. Walter, 1985
- Object Number: 1985.1161.17
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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