His most famous painting is Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (1871), commonly known as Whistler's Mother, the revered and oft-parodied portrait of motherhood. Whistler influenced the art world and the broader culture of his time with his artistic theories and his friendships with leading artists and writers.

His most famous painting, Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (1871), commonly known as Whistler's Mother, is a revered and often parodied portrait of motherhood. Whistler influenced the art world and the broader culture of his time with his aesthetic theories and his friendships with other leading artists and writers. [ 3 ]

His paintings, etchings, and pastels epitomize the modern penchant for creating "art for art's sake," an axiom celebrated by Whistler and others in the Aesthetic movement. They also represent one of the earliest shifts from traditional representational art to abstraction that is at the heart of much of modern art.

In 1869 Whistler began to sign his paintings with a butterfly monogram composed of his initials. In 1872 he painted his well-known Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: Portrait of the Artist's …

His total output was considerable: over 550 paintings in oil and mixed media; 490 etchings and drypoints, 1800 works on paper – drawings, pastels and watercolours - and 179 lithographs, lithotints and mezzotints.

James McNeill Whistler (born July 11, 1834, Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S.—died July 17, 1903, London, England) was an American-born artist noted for his paintings of nocturnal London, for his striking and stylistically advanced full-length portraits, and for his brilliant etchings and lithographs.

These are the 12 most famous paintings by James McNeill Whistler. This American-born, British-based painter was the creator of the famous bohemian statement “art for the sake of art” (l’art pour l’art).

In the future Whistler must be accounted, in oil painting, a master exquisite but rare.

2020年2月17日 · Boldly privileging color, shape, and value (rather than content), Whistler exemplified the 19th century art-for-art’s-sake approach of the British Aesthetic movement. Sophisticated, cosmopolitan and thoroughly modern, the Aesthetic credo banished centuries of Western sentimentalism and moralizing (via content).

The evolution of each painting from sketch to final oil is described and illustrated, starting with basic information: the title, date, collection, medium, size, and signature.