James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) was an American painter, etcher, and wit. A forerunner of abstract art, he is renowned for his paintings of nocturnal London, for his striking and stylistically advanced full-length portraits, and his vivid etchings and lithographs.
Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Whistler joined the U.S. Navy, where he worked as a cartographer and learned to etch. He decided on a career in art and lived and worked in England from 1859.
Whistler achieved success first with “The Little White Girl” (1863.) He is perhaps best known for the famous portrait of his mother, “Arrangement in Gray and Black: The Artist’s Mother” (1872; “Whistler’s Mother.”) His other works include “Old Battersea Bridge: Nocturne-Blue and Gold” (1872–75) and a famous portrait of the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle (1873.) Whistler primarily painted in one or two colors and sought to realize the harmony of color and tone.
Whistler published critical essays and aphorisms and designed interiors that foreshadowed the Art Nouveau movement. His published lecture, Ten O’clock (1888,) greatly influenced art theory.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by James Abbott McNeill Whistler
You should not say it is not good. You should say you do not like it; and then, you know, you’re perfectly safe.
—James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Topics: Attitude, Critics, Criticism
If other people are going to talk, conversation becomes impossible.
—James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Topics: Conversation
Nature contains the elements, in colour and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music. But the artist is born to pick and choose… that the result may be beautiful—as the musician gathers his notes, and forms his chords, until he brings forth from chaos glorious harmony…
—James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Topics: Harmony
I can’t tell you if genius is hereditary, because heaven has granted me no offspring.
—James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Topics: Humility, Genius
An artist’s career always begins tomorrow.
—James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Topics: Career
An artist is not paid for his labor, but for his vision.
—James Abbott McNeill Whistler
If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond this.
—James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Topics: Photography
Work alone will efface the footsteps of work
—James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Topics: Work
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