James McNeill Whistler
(1834-1903)
James McNeill Whistler, an Anglo-American artist, was the son of a railroad engineer. He was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1834. As his father was invited to work in Russia, James was firstly educated in Russia at the Academy of Arts in Petersburg. After the family returned to America Whistler studied at the Military Academy at West Point, but was expelled. In 1850 he began to create a number of etchings which were published in 1858. In 1855 he left America for Paris, where he studied art under C. Gleyre and was influenced by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot and Gustave Courbet. Whistler’s works were admired by Courbet and Charles Pierre Baudelaire. But John Ruskin disliked Whistler’s art and constantly criticized it. In 1879 Whistler went to Venice, where he made a lot of wonderful sketches and paintings. When the artists returned to England he was chosen the Chairman of the Society of English Artists. At the end of his life Whistler, one of “the society lions” was on friendly terms with Oscar Wilde. The artist died on July 17, 1903 in London.
