American (worked in London)1834–1903
James McNeill Whistler
An American painter born in Massachusetts who trained in Paris and made his life in London. He gave his pictures musical titles such as nocturnes, symphonies and arrangements, to insist that a painting is about colour and form rather than story. In 1878 he sued the critic John Ruskin for libel and won damages of a single farthing.
A life in paintings
- 1834Born
- 1859Was friends with Gustave CourbetParis
In Paris Whistler was drawn into Courbet's circle and became close to him, before turning away from Courbet's realism; the friendship had cooled by the later 1860s, after Whistler's partner and model Joanna Hiffernan sat for Courbet.
Source: Wikipedia - 1872
- 1880Worked with John Atkinson GrimshawChelsea, London
In the 1880s Grimshaw kept a London studio in Chelsea, close to Whistler's, and the two knew each other there. After visiting Grimshaw, Whistler said he had considered himself the inventor of nocturnes until he saw Grimshaw's moonlit pictures. Wikipedia's lead says Grimshaw 'worked with' Whistler in his Chelsea studios; the body text supports only neighbouring studios and a visit, hence confidence 0.8.
Source: Wikipedia - 1903Died
Whistler and Monet were close friends. Monet took refuge in London during the Franco-Prussian War, where Whistler already painted the Thames, and Whistler's friendships with Monet and Mallarmé helped his reputation in France.
Whistler collected Japanese art, and some of his Thames paintings show compositional and thematic similarities with Hiroshige's prints. The sources describe a resemblance rather than a documented borrowing from a named print, and one attributes the same debt to Hokusai, so this stays at 0.7.
Circles
Exhibition · Paris · 1863
Salon des Refusés (1863)
Exhibition of works rejected by the official Paris Salon jury, sanctioned by Napoleon III. Whistler and Manet were the two most noticed exhibitors.
Society · London · 1823
Society of British Artists
London exhibiting society (Royal Society of British Artists from 1887). Whistler joined in 1884 and was its president from 1886.
Where to see them
Tate Britain
London
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