James McNeill Whistler c.1896
The American-born artist, James McNeill Whistler (1834 – 1903) dominated the late 19th century art world.
Painter, printmaker, designer, writer of art, aesthete and wit, Whistler's many achievements included a series of striking portraits; atmospheric "Nocturne" views of London and the Thames; innovative etchings; the "tour de force" interior "The Peacock Room"; and his landmark lecture on art, the "Ten O'Clock". His career was largely divided between London and Paris.
Whistler established a new and sophisticated language of art, both visual and literary, which has had a profound influence on subsequent generations.
| 1834 | Whistler born 11 July, at Lowell, Massachusetts |
| 1843 | Whistler moves with his family to St Petersburg, Russia, following his father, Major George Washington Whistler's appointment as a civil engineer for the St Petersburg to Moscow railway |
| 1845 | Attends drawing lessons at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, St Petersburg |
| 1848 | Lives with his half-sister Deborah Haden at 62 Sloane Street, London |
| 1849 | His father, Major George Washington Whistler dies; family return to America |
| 1851-4 | Attends United States Military Academy, West Point |
| 1854-5 | Works at the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey |
| 1855 | Moves to Paris |
| 1856 | Enters the studio of Charles Gleyre |
| 1858 | Produces the etchings published as the "French Set". Meets artists Fantin-Latour, Courbet and Legros |
| 1859 | Moves to London; etches with Seymour Haden; begins the "Thames Set" of etchings |
| 1860 | Exhibits At the Piano at the Royal Academy |
| c.1860 | Meets Joanna Hiffernan |
| 1863 | Moves to 7 Lindsey Row, Chelsea; exhibits The White Girl at the Salon des Refusés, Paris; his mother, Anna Matilda Whistler, arrives in London from America |
| 1865 | Meets Albert Moore; paints with Courbet at Trouville |
| 1866 | Brief trip to Valparaiso, Chile; separates from Joanna Hiffernan |
| 1867 | Moves to 2 Lindsey Row, Chelsea |
| 1870 | Birth of son, Charles James Whistler Hanson |
| 1871 | Paints Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1: Portrait of the Painter's Mother and first nocturnes of the Thames |
| c.1873 | Maud Franklin becomes Whistler's model and subsequently mistress |
| 1873 | Paints Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle |
| 1874 | First one-man exhibition, Flemish Gallery, Pall Mall |
| 1875 | Anna Whistler retires to Hastings |
| 1876-7 | Decorates the Peacock Room at 49 Prince's Gate, the London home of Liverpool shipping magnate, F.R. Leyland |
| 1877 | The critic John Ruskin's comments on work exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, London, provokes Whistler to raise a libel suit; commissions the White House from E.W. Godwin; birth of his daughter, Ione Franklin |
| 1878 | Briefly takes up lithography; awarded damages of one farthing in the Ruskin libel suit |
| 1879 | Birth of his daughter, Maud McNeill Whistler Franklin; declared bankrupt; leaves for Venice with a commission from the Fine Art Society, London, for 12 etchings |
| 1880 | Exhibits the "First Venice Set" etchings at the Fine Art Society, London |
| 1881 | Exhibits Venice pastels at the Fine Art Society, London; Anna Whistler dies; leases studio at 13 Tite Street |
| 1883 | Exhibition of Venice etchings at the Fine Art Society, London, and Wunderlich's, New York |
| 1884 | Exhibition of "Notes"–"Harmonies"–"Nocturnes" at Dowdeswells', London; leases studio at 454a Fulham Road |
| 1885 | Delivers the "Ten O'Clock" lecture, Prince's Hall, London; lives at the Pink Palace, and subsequently The Vale, Chelsea |
| 1886 | Second exhibition of "Notes"–"Harmonies"–"Nocturnes" at Dowdeswells' A Set of Twenty Six Etchings of Venice published by Dowdeswells' elected President of the Society of British Artists; resigns in 1888 |
| 1887 | Resumes lithography; exhibition of 50 oils at Galerie Georges Petit, Paris |
| 1888 | Moved to 14 Upper Cheyne Row, and subsequently the Tower House, Tite Street; breaks with Maud Franklin and marries Beatrix Godwin; honeymoons on the Continent |
| 1889 | Paints and etches in Amsterdam |
| 1890 | Moves to 21 Cheyne Walk; publishes The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, a selection of correspondence and writings on art; meets his future great patron, the American industrialist, Charles L. Freer |
| 1891 | Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle purchased by Glasgow Corporation; Arrangement in Grey and Black No 1: Portrait of the Painter's Mother purchased by the Musée du Luxembourg, Paris |
| 1892 | Major retrospective at the Goupil Gallery, London. The Whistlers move to 110 rue du Bac, Paris, and take a studio at 86 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs |
| 1894 | The Whistlers return to London |
| 1896 | Takes a London studio at 8 Fitzroy Street; Beatrix Whistler dies; Rosalind Birnie Philip becomes his ward |
| 1897 | Sets up the Company of the Butterfly to sell his work; paints in Dieppe and Etretat |
| 1898 | Elected President of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers; teaching school, the Académie Carmen, set up in Paris |
| 1899-1901 | Painting trips to France, Holland, Ireland, Algeria and Corsica |
| 1901 | Closes Paris house and studio |
| 1902 | Leases 74 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea |
| 1903 | Awarded honorary doctorate of law by the University of Glasgow; dies at 74 Cheyne Walk, 17 July |