The Gentle Art

The poems in The Gentle Art , a compelling new collection from William Wenthe, move between the life of the painter James McNeill Whistler and a poetic version of the author, who is at once inspired and disturbed by Whistler. The present-day author sheds light on Whistler’s artistic vocation and the beauty of his paintings, most notably the liminal London riverscapes that he named Nocturnes , yet recoils at the cost of Whistler’s devotion to art: lovers abandoned, friends turned into enemies, hi