Whistler
1800
First Published
4.08
Average Rating
128
Number of Pages
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was one of the most original artists of the late 19th-century. Flamboyant dandy and ebullient publicist, friend of Oscar Wilde, Whistler was also a meticulous craftsman dedicated to the perfection of his art. He was born in the United States but travelled to Paris to study painting. Under the influence of Courbet, he began as a realist painter, but gradually developed a startlingly original method of composition, refining his technique to the barest essentials. He was one of the first to argue that the abstract ingredients of a painting - the lines, shapes, colours and tones - could in themselves be the subject; he entitled the portrait of his mother Arrangement in Grey and Black.
Avg Rating
4.08
Number of Ratings
25
5 STARS
32%
4 STARS
44%
3 STARS
24%
2 STARS
0%
1 STARS
0%
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Author
Frances Spalding
Author · 11 books
Frances Spalding CBE, FRSL (née Crabtree) is a British art historian, writer and a former editor of The Burlington Magazine.
