Whistler was born in Massachusetts. His father, Major
George
Washington Whistler, who had graduated from West Point, was a civil
engineer. His mother Anna McNeill came from an aristocratic southern
family. When he was nine the family moved to Russia where his father
was building a railroad. Six years later his father died and the family
returned to America.
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James himself entered West Point, but dropped out in
his third year
when he failed to pass a chemistry exam. He was later quoted as saying,
"Had silicon been a gas I would have been a 'Major-General'."
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He worked for a while as a draftsman drawing maps, but
he got in
trouble for drawing pictures in the margins of the maps. He finally
decided to just pursue art, and in 1855 he sailed to Paris. He was to
never return to America.
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His first successful showing in Paris was at an
exhibit of independent artists. The painting was called Symphony
in White No. 2 The White Girl.
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He moved to London. He began to use musical terms to
name his
paintings; words such as "Arrangements", "Harmonies", "Symphonies",
"Nocturnes", "Notes", and "Caprices".
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He studied in Venice for a year or so and made a
series of etchings
there. He returned to London. Some people ridiculed his work and did
not take him seriously as an artist. When he was in public, he appeared
to be a careless, idle person, but when he went to work in his studio,
he was just the opposite.
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In 1888 he married a widow, Beatrix Godwin. Eight
years later she died and he was devastated. In 1903 he became ill and
died.
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The portrait of Whistler's mother was almost rejected
when he first
presented it, but it has become a much-loved portrait in America. It
was used on a postage stamp in 1934 to commemorate Mother's Day. He
called the painting An Arrangement in Grey and Black. He didn't
want people to just think of it as his
mother, but he wanted her to represent all aging mothers. He kept the
painting in his home for many years and finally offered it to the
French government for the price of 120 pounds.
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( Whistler's Mother is to be on display at
the Boston
Museum of Fine Arts during the summer of 2006, on loan from the Musee
d'Orsay in Paris, France. It is appraised at about $30 million.)
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