Key Figures

Q to T

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn (1606-1669)
Rembrandt was a Dutch painter and etcher of portraits, landscapes and historical, mythological and biblical scenes. He was famed for his use of rich colour, expressive brushwork and his unidealised approach to subject matter. His portraits showed a great depth and subtlety in conveying character. He often relied on dramatic contrasts of light and shade.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
Rossetti was a painter and poet. Like Whistler, whom he met in 1862, Rossetti was interested in painting decorative works, based on arrangements in different colours, often including oriental accessories. He also played with musical analogies in his work, often painting beautiful young women playing exotic stringed instruments. Rossetti’s paintings tended to be more sensual than Whistler’s, and they relied to a far greater extent on literature and mythology.

John Ruskin (1819-1900)
Ruskin was a social reformer, artist and the most famous and respected art critic of his day. He was the author of Modern Painters (1843-1860) and The Stones of Venice (1851-1853). In 1877 he criticised Whistler's Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket [link – Painting/City and Sea/Nocturnes/YMSM170] as showing a lack of finish and effort. Whistler took libel action against him. The Whistler v. Ruskin trial was held in November 1878. Whistler won the case but was only awarded a farthing in damages. This contributed towards his bankruptcy.

Walter Sickert (1860-1942)
Sickert was an artist and writer on art. He met Whistler in 1879 when he was a student at the Slade School of Art. In 1882 he became Whistler's pupil and studio assistant. He and Whistler often worked from the same model. However, they quarrelled in 1896.

Christine Spartali (1845?-1884)
Christine Spartali (later the Countess Edmond de Cahen) was the daughter of Michael Spartali, the Greek Consul General in London. Her sister Marie was an artist. Both modelled to artists in Whistler’s circle. Christine was the model for La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine [link – Painting/Subject painting/YMSM 50].

Thomas Waldo Story (1854-1915)
Story was an American sculptor and art critic. In the early 1880s Story and his brother Julian, along with Frank Miles, Walter Sickert and Harper Pennington were constantly in Whistler's studio. In December 1882 Whistler talked of setting up a kind of artist's society, the “Chelsea Club”. The two Story brothers were to be included in the scheme.

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909)
Swinburne was a poet and critic. He met Whistler in July 1862, at the same time as his friend Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He wrote a poem, “Before the Mirror”, which was inspired by Whistler’s Little White Girl [link – Painting/ Subject painting/YMSM 52]. Whistler was so pleased with it that he exhibited the poem with the painting at the Royal Academy in 1865. The two men fell out in 1888 when Swinburne published a criticism of Whistler’s Ten O’Clock Lecture [link – Life/Critics].

James Reeves Traer (c. 1834-1867)
Traer was a partner in the medical practice of Whistler’s brother-in-law Francis Seymour Haden. He was particularly interested in optics and may have inspired the young Whistler to experiment in his paintings with effects he had found in photography. Whistler liked Traer. He was included in Whistler's etching The Music Room [link – Works on paper/Prints/GLAHA 46721]. Traer died in Paris in April 1867. Whistler accused Haden of disrespect towards his partner and knocked him through a plate-glass window. As a result Whistler and Haden never spoke to each other again.