Whistler

Whistler, James Abbot McNeill

(1834-1903)

Whistler, James Abbott McNeill (1834-1903) Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, he
attended West Point Military Academy. Failing there, he worked as a Navy
cartographer, which taught him the technique of etching, before going to Paris
to study painting in 1855. He lived as a dandy and had a deserved reputation as
a biting wit, well able to keep up with his friend Oscar Wilde. After one
particularly clever remark Wilde is supposed to have said admiringly, "I wish I
had said that." Whistler replied, "You will, Oscar, you will!" Whistler's
style, despite his early influence by French painting, shows a distinctly
English bargain between discipline and innovation. He became famous for his
technique of placing a figure against a background that was virtually empty and
colorless, as in the popular painting that has come to be known as Whistler's
Mother.