James McNeill Whistler
American, 1834 - 1903
NationalityAmerican
BiographyLeading figure in the Aesthetic Movement in British painting. Although he always considered himself an American, Whistler lived in the United States for only fourteen years and during the remainder of his life resided alternately in Paris and London, with sojourns in virtually every country in continental Europe. While pursuing his art training in France, he came under the influence of avant-garde artists such as Gustave Courbet, and in England, too, he gravitated toward controversial and progressive figures, such as the poet Algernon Swinburne and the painters Albert Moore and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Under their influence he began to explore analogies between music and painting in portraits and genre pictures, to which he often appended musical titles. The startling minimalism of his night scenes on the Thames, which he called "Nocturnes," elicited sharp criticism from John Ruskin, whom the artist sued for libel in 1878. He won the case but was bankrupted by the costs.Person TypeIndividual
British, 1792 - 1882
Alternative Names: John Linnell
British, 1760 - 1829
Alternative Names: Frances Molesworth, later Marchioness Camden
British, 1833 - 1898
Alternative Names: Edward Burne-Jones
American, 1738 - 1820
Alternative Names: Benjamin West
British, 1666 - 1716
Alternative Names: James Thomson
British, 1787-1849
Alternative Names: William Etty
British, 1885-1978
Alternative Names: Duncan Grant
Chinese, 1713 - 1786
Alternative Names: 超陶齊
British, 1726-1770
Alternative Names: Francis Cotes
British, 1760 - 1834
Alternative Names: Isabella (Ingram) Seymour Conway, Viscountess Beauchamp, later Marchioness of Hertford
American, 1850 - 1927
Alternative Names: Henry Edwards Huntington
British, 1727-1788
Alternative Names: Thomas Gainsborough