James McNeill Whistler
(American, 1834-1903)

Whistler was one of the most controversial artists of the last part of the nineteenth century and delighted in puncturing the stuffiness of the English whose lifes he delighted in enlivening. Yet despite his
abrasive personality, his art is among the most subtle of his times.
Whistler made it his mission in England, where he spent the latter part of his life, to attack the notion that the artist must portray the subjects upon which he worked recognizably, prefering instead to present the inner harmony that he felt when painting, etching, or making prints.
His work moves from Realism to Impressionism to Symbolism to Abstraction.