James McNeill Whistler is one of the most important artists of the 19th century. With his belief that art – like music – should above all evoke a mood, he helped shape modern art. Alongside his paintings, he is also renowned for his many etchings and drawings, made in cities such as Paris, Amsterdam and Venice.
Whistler’s rebellious nature and strong convictions regularly set him on a collision course with critics and patrons. With his distinctive and innovative art, he was at times considered too progressive – even by avant-garde artists. Whistler spent months, sometimes even years, working on a single artwork, while the final work appears almost effortless.
At the time, the influential English art historian Roger Fry wrote about Whistler:
‘… he seemed to be always inaugurating a revolution, leading intransigent youth against the strongholds of tradition and academic complacence.’
Whistler & Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh admired Whistler and mentioned his etchings in various letters. He counted Whistler among the artists he and his brother Theo had ‘loved in our time’.
Whistler and Van Gogh shared a fascination with Japanese aesthetics and pushed the boundaries of what art could be. Van Gogh referred to the famous portrait of Whistler’s mother in a letter to his sister Willemien, writing:
‘There’s a painting that Whistler did of his mother which is like that. But above all in our old Dutch paintings we find it sometimes. When I think of Mother she too appears like that to me.’