James mcneill whistler born
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James Abbott McNeill Whistler Biography In Details
Early Life
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He was the first child born to George Washington Whistler, a prominent engineer, and Anna Matilda McNeill (his father's second wife). At the Ruskin trial (see below), Whistler claimed the more exotic St. Petersburg, Russia as his birthplace: "I shall be born when and where I want, and I do not choose to be born in Lowell," he declared. In later years, he would play up his mother's connection to Southern and Scottish roots, and present himself as an impoverished Southern aristocrat (although to what extent he truly sympathized with the Southern cause during the American Civil War remains unclear).
Young Whistler was a moody child prone to fits of temper and insolence, who after bouts of ill-health often drifted into periods of laziness. His parents discovered in his early youth that drawing often settled him down and helped focus his attention.
Russia and England
Beginning in 1842, his father was employed to work on a rail
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Arrangement en gris et noir n°1
Date
1871 [Peint pendant l'été 1871 dans l'atelier de Whistler, 2 Lindsey Row à Londres.]
Others accession number
Accession number
Description
huile sur toile
Dimensions
H. 144,3 ; L. 163,0 cm.
avec cadre H. 185,5 ; L. 204 cm
Inscription(s)
S.h., sur la potière, du monogramme au papillon :
Place of conservation
musée d'Orsay
1891, acquis de l'artiste par l'Etat pour le musée du Luxembourg
de 1891 à 1922, musée du Luxembourg, Paris
de 1922 à 1925, musée du Louvre, galerie du Jeu de Paume, Paris
1925, attribué au musée du Louvre, Paris
de 1925 à 1986, musée du Louvre, Paris
1986, affecté au musée d'Orsay, Paris
Modality of acquisition
achat
[sans titre] - Royal Academy of Arts - Royaume-Uni, Londres, 1872, n°941
Mr Whistler's Exhibition - Flemish Gallery - Royaume-Uni, Londres, 1874, n°4
Special Exhibition of Paintings by American Artists at Home and in Europe - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts - Etats-Unis,
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James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)
The artist James Abbott Whistler, known from 1881 as James McNeill Whistler, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. His parents were George Washington Whistler, civil engineer, and his second wife, Anna Matilda McNeill.
Youth
G. W. Whistler’s work took the family to Russia from 1843 to 1848. The young James Whistler studied art with an art student, A. O. Koritskii, and at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg. While convalescing from illness, he studied a book of Hogarth engravings that made a lasting impression on him. In London, he saw Raphael cartoons at Hampton Court and Rembrandt etchings owned by his brother-in-law, Francis Seymour Haden.
After his father’s death in 1849, the family returned to America. In 1851, Whistler entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, studying art under Robert W. Weir. Lessons included copying from European engravings in the West Point collection, and topographical drawing, at which he excelled, but deficiencies in chemistry and discipline led to his expulsion in 1854. An interlude in
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