Whistler. Phaidon Colour Library

Phaidon Colour Library

by Frances Spalding

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was one of the most original artists of the late 19th-century. Flamboyant dandy and ebullient publicist, friend of Oscar Wilde, Whistler was also a meticulous craftsman dedicated to the perfection of his art. He was born in the United States but travelled to Paris to study painting. Under the influence of Courbet, he began as a realist painter, but gradually developed a startlingly original method of composition, refining his technique to the barest essentials. He was one of the first to argue that the abstract ingredients of a painting - the lines, shapes, colours and tones - could in themselves be the subject; he entitled the portrait of his mother Arrangement in Grey and Black.

Genres: Art, Biography

128 pages, Paperback

Published August 12, 1998

About the author

Frances Spalding CBE, FRSL (née Crabtree) is a British art historian, writer and a former editor of The Burlington Magazine.