WHISTLER, JAMES A MIOTT ICNEILL ( 1834 1903). An American painter and etcher. of French training. the must original and gifted artist of American lineage. The events of Iris early life are difficult to ascertain. owing to his own contradictory statements and desire to veil them in mystery; hut it seems certain that he was horn at Lowell, Mass., July 10, 1834. His father. Major George Washington Whistler. of the United States Army, was a distinguished engineer. His mother, a Baltimore lady of re finement, was the constant companion and in structor of his boyhood. In 1837 the family re moved to Stonington. Conn., and in 1842 to Si hit Petersburg, Russia. Major Whistler having been intrusted by the Czar with an important econmission in the construction of the railroad between Saint Petersburg and Moscow. After the Major's death (1849) the family returned to Stonington and the lad was sent to school at Pomfret, near by, preparatory to entering West Point in 1851. Military discipline and attention to detail were very odious to him, and although he distinguished himself in drawing, his record in other subjects was such that he was dismissed from the academy. He was, however, assigned to the United States Coast Survey. in which he did not remain long, because of a prank in en graving caricatures on the margin of a plate executed in that service. In 1856 he became a pupil of the classicist Gleyre in Paris. Ina not perceptibly influenced by this master. 11(1 was for sonic. time a follower of Courbet, whose sincere realism he deeply admired. The low tones and the grand lines of his works remind somewhat of Velazquez, though he never saw the best of the great Spaniard's in :Madrid. From the ifiroshige and lIokusai he probably learned most of all—subtle decorative effects and the principles of selection. But none of these elements dominate his art to such an extent that he can with propriety be called any man's pupil. individuality was from the beginning entirely unique.
From 1857 to 1803 his pictures were refused at the Salon; but in the latter year his "Little White Girl" achieved a signal success in the Salon des Refuss. As an etcher he found • earlier recognition. Hi, Little French Series (1858) representing Parisian views, some of a genre character, established his reputation, and the wonderful Thames Series (1S71) placed him in the first rank. Being executed with consider aide detail. these plates met with greater appro bation than those of his later life, when he had carried the process of selection to its logical con clusion. His later subjects were taken from Holland. France. and other localities which he visited, but the best known are the First Venice Series (1880) and the Second Venice Series (1881). They are the culmination of his etch
ing. and place him in the same rank with Rembrandt. the world's greatest etcher, whom he even excels in selection and subtlety of exe cution. In the rendition of color and of light and shade, in the subtle grouping of line, these works are unique. Whistler was also high ly successful in dry-point etching and lithograph ic drawing. in which media he executed a 1111711 her of plates. Some 300 of his etchings have been published with comments by Frederic Wed more (1899), and good examples may be found in the print-rooms of the Venice Academy. Dresden Gallery, Bibliotheque Nationale, British Museum, Lenox Library, New York. and elsewhere.
The eccentricities of Whistler and his quarrels with English artists and critics during his long stay in London (1S58-90) were, for a long time. better known than his paintings. Tie was of a very combative disposition, and profoundly im pressed with the importance of his own views. His central idea was that painting should appeal only to the eye, and that it was not a medium for the expression of ideas or emotions, the sub ject being absolutely irrelevant. Emphasizing the analogy with music, he called his paintings arrangements, symphonies. nocturnes, and the like, pitching them in one or two related color tones. For him the public and the critics were a set of ignoramuses, who had no right to an opinion whatever. He quarreled indiscriminately with friend and foe, chiefly by means of public letters, in which he gave vent to an inimitable wit and satire. Especially well known is his quarrel with John Buskin, who in his Ars elari gera (1877) had given vent to his feelings over one of Whistler's in the following language: "I have seen and heard much of cock ney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face." The artist promptly sued for damages. and in the celebrated trial which followed he was awarded one farthing,Which coin he triumphantly wore as a watch charm ever afterwards. To propagate his ideas he turned increasingly to literature, developing a style as well balanced as it is clear and incisive. Ten ()Wind; (1858), a lecture delivered at that hour of night, is a statement of his artistic theories: his other works are The aentle Art of Making Enemies (1890), in which he was past, master. and the Baronet and the Butterfly (1890), an account of a celebrated quarrel. No artist ever had a more interesting signature than Whistler's butterfly, by the :lethal of which lie endeavored to render a sentiment of the letter to which it was affixed.