James Abbott McNeill Whistler

1834 - 1903 • American • Painter • Aestheticist

"Why should not I call my works "symphonies," "arrangements," "harmonies," and ''nocturnes"? I know that many good people think my nomenclature funny and myself "eccentric." Yes, "eccentric" is the adjective they find for me." - James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Part of Whistler's AESTHETICISM was the conviction that "as music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight." One of his works is named Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (c. 1874) and represents a fireworks display in London over the River Thames. It is similar in approach to TURNER'S explorations of light, color, and air. RUSKIN, who was Turner's champion, disparaged Whistler's effort, saying he had "flung a pot of paint in the public's face." Whistler took Ruskin to court for libel and won the case. Regarding his most famous work, popularly known as "Whistler's Mother" (1871), Whistler said, "Take the picture of my mother, exhibited as an Arrangement in Grey and Black. Now that is what it is. To me it is interesting as a picture of my mother; but what can or ought the public to care about the identity of the portrait?" Whistler was increasingly interested in arranging and combining tones of paint in patterns on the canvas rather than in creating resemblances to people or places. Born in America, Whistler spent his life abroad. In London he was a friend of ROSSETTI and the PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD.