James Whistler

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born painter and leading figure in the Aesthetic Movement. After an unsuccessful stint at West Point Military Academy, he left for Paris in 1855 to study art. Initially drawn to the Realism of Courbet, by the 1860s he had pioneered his own style that anticipated Post-Impressionism with its stress on flat areas of colours. Having moved to London in 1859, he painted his famous series of Thames Nocturnes during the 1870s. Instead of pictures that expounded moral truths or told stories, he believed in the concept of “art for art’s sake”. His paintings aspired to the abstract quality of music, which is why he titled his works “harmonies” and “arrangements”. The infamous Ruskin libel trial of 1879 resulted in bankruptcy, but financial recovery came with the success of his evocative Venice etchings. His contemporary fame owed in no small measure to his acerbic wit and legendary dandyism.