Timeline


	1834	James Abbott Whistler is born on 11 July in Lowell, Massachusetts.
	1837	Whistler family moves to Stonington, Connecticut.
	1840	Moves with family to Springfield, Massachusetts
	1843	Moves with family to St Petersburg in Russia, following his father Major George Washington Whistler's [link - Key figures] appointment as a civil engineer for the St Petersburg to Moscow railway. Receives drawing lessons from an art student, Alexander Ossipovich Karetsky.
	1845	Attends drawing lessons at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg.
	1848	Leaves St Petersburg for London. Visits Preston, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Stays with his half-sister Deborah [link – Key figures] and her husband Francis Seymour Haden [link – Key figures] at 62 Sloane Street in London. His father Major Whistler [link - Key figures] dies and the family returns to America, living at Pomfret, Connecticut.
	1851-1854	Attends the United States Military Academy at West Point as a cadet. Studies drawing with Robert W. Weir. Adopts mother’s maiden name McNeill.
	1854	Expelled from West Point for poor marks in chemistry. Works at the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey where he makes his first etchings.
	1855	Resigns from the Coast Survey. Moves to Paris to study art.
	1856	Enters as a pupil in the studio of the painter Charles Gleyre [link – Key figures]. Friends include the sculptor Charles Drouet [link – Key figures, GLAHA 46745].
	1858	Makes a sketching tour of France and Germany. The ‘French Set’ of etchings [link – Works on Paper/Prints/GLAHA 46706] are printed by Auguste Delâtre [link – Key figures]. Meets the artists Gustave Courbet [link – Key figures], Henri Fantin-Latour [link – Key figures] and Alphonse Legros [link – Key figures]. Forms an artistic group called the Société des Trois (Society of Three) with Fantin-Latour and Legros.
	1859	Moves to London. Etches with Seymour Haden [link – Key figures]. Begins the ‘Thames Set’ of etchings [link – Works on Paper/Prints/GLAHA 46783].
	1860	Exhibits At the Piano [link – Painting/Subject Painting/YMSM 24] at the Royal Academy in London. Meets Joanna Hiffernan [link – Key figures] who becomes his model and mistress.
	1861	Meets the French painters Edouard Manet [link – Key figures] and Edgar Degas [link – Key figures]. Paints in Britanny.
	1862	Meets the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti [link – Key figures, Works on Paper/Prints/GLAHA 54093] and the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne [link – Key figures]. Joins the Société des Aqua-Fortistes, an etching society in Paris.1863 Begins to seriously collect oriental items such as blue and white china. Moves to 7 Lindsey Row in Chelsea and decorates it in an oriental style. Exhibits The White Girl [link – Painting/Subject Painting/YMSM 38] at the Salon des Refusés in Paris. Wins a gold medal in The Hague for his etchings. His mother Anna Matilda Whistler [link – Key figures] arrives in London from America.
	1865	Meets the painter Albert Moore [link – Key figures]. Paints with Gustave Courbet [link – Key figures] at Trouville.
	1866	Makes a brief trip to Valparaiso in Chile. Separates from Joanna Hiffernan [link - Key figures].
	1867	Moves to 2 Lindsey Row in Chelsea. Expelled from the Burlington Fine Arts Club for pushing Seymour Haden [link - Key figures] through a plate-glass window.
	1870	Birth of his son Charles James Whistler Hanson [link – Key figures] by Louisa Fanny Hanson [link – Key figures], a maid.
	1871	Paints Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1: Portrait of the Painter's Mother [link – Painting/Portraits/YMSM 101] and the first Nocturnes [link – Painting/City and Sea/Nocturnes] of the Thames. The ‘Thames Set’ of etchings [link – Works on Paper/Prints/GLAHA 46783] is published.
	1873	Works on the decorative schemes for William Alexander [link – Key figures] at Aubrey House [link – Design/Interiors/GLAHA 46050-3]. Paints Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle [link – Painting/Portraits/YMSM 137]. Maud Franklin [link – Key figures] becomes Whistler's model and mistress.
	1874	Holds first one-man exhibition at the Flemish Gallery in Pall Mall, London.
	1875	Anna Whistler [link - Key figures] retires to Hastings.
	1876-1877	Paints Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room [link – Design/Interiors/GLAHA 46071, Peacock Room video] at 49 Prince's Gate, the London home of the Liverpool shipping merchant Frederick Leyland [link – Key figures].
	1877	Exhibition of Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket [link – Painting/City and Sea/Nocturne/YMSM 170] at the Grosvenor Gallery. The critic John Ruskin [link – Key figures] describes it as “a pot of paint” thrown in the public’s face. The architect E. W. Godwin [link - Key figures] is commissioned to build the White House on Tite Street in Chelsea. Birth of daughter Ione Franklin [link – Key figures] by Maud Franklin.
	1878	Moves to the White House. Makes first attempts at lithography. Wins Whistler v. Ruskin libel trial but is awarded only one farthing in damages. The costs of the trial place him in a difficult financial position.
	1879	Birth of his second daughter, Maud McNeill Whistler Franklin [link – Key figures]. Declared bankrupt. Leaves for Venice with a commission from the Fine Art Society in London for 12 etchings.
	1880	Returns to London. Exhibition of the ‘First Venice Set’ of etchings [link – Works on Paper/Prints/GLAHA 46803, 46804, 46822] at the Fine Art Society in London.
	1881	Exhibition of 53 Venice pastels [link – Works on Paper/Pastels/GLAHA 46083] at the Fine Art Society. Anna Whistler [link – Key figures] dies at Hastings. Moves to 13 Tite Street. Becomes friendly with Oscar Wilde [link – Key figures].
	1882	Walter Sickert [link – Key figures] becomes Whistler’s pupil and helps print his etchings.
	1883	Second exhibition of Venice etchings at the Fine Art Society.
	1884	Painting and etches in Holland. Exhibition of "Notes"–"Harmonies"–"Nocturnes" at the Dowdeswell Gallery in London. Moves to 454a Fulham Road.
	1885	Gives the Ten O'Clock Lecture at Prince's Hall in London. Lives at the “Pink Palace”, The Vale in Chelsea.
	1886	Second exhibition of "Notes"–"Harmonies"–"Nocturnes" at Dowdeswells'. A Set of Twenty Six Etchings of Venice is published by Dowdeswells'. Elected President of the Society of British Artists.
	1887	Takes up lithography again. Introduced to transfer lithography by T. R. Way [link – Key figures]. Exhibition of 50 oils in Paris at the Galerie Georges Petit.
	1888	Moves to 14 Upper Cheyne Row, and then to the Tower House on Tite Street. Resigns as President of the Royal Society of British Artists. Introduced by Claude Monet [link – Key figures] to the Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé [link – Key figures]. Breaks with Maud Franklin [link – Key figures] and marries Beatrix Godwin [link – Key figures], the widow of the architect E. W. Godwin [link – Key figures]. Honeymoons in France.
	1889	Paints and etches in Amsterdam. Made Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur.
	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 Lang Freer [link – Key figures].
	1891	Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle [link – Painting/Portraits/YMSM 137] is bought by the Corporation of Glasgow, the first of Whistler’s works to enter a public collection. Arrangement in Grey and Black No 1: Portrait of the Painter's Mother [link – Painting/Portraits/YMSM 101] is purchased by the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris.
	1892	Promoted to Officier of the Légion d’Honneur. Holds a major retrospective exhibition at the Goupil Gallery in London. Moves to 110 rue du Bac in Paris. Takes a studio at 86 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs.
	1894	Returns to London, Beatrix [link – Key figures] having been diagnosed with cancer.
	1895	Exhibition of 75 lithographs at the Fine Art Society.
	1896	Takes a London studio at 8 Fitzroy Street. Beatrix Whistler [link – Key figures] dies. Rosalind Birnie Philip [link – Key figures] becomes Whistler’s ward and executrix.
	1897	Sets up the Company of the Butterfly to sell his work. Paints in Dieppe and Etretat. Court case with William Eden.
	1898	Elected President of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. Sets up a teaching school, the Académie Carmen, in Paris.
	1899-1901	Makes painting trips to France, Holland, Ireland, Algeria and Corsica.
	1901	Closes Paris house and studio.
	1902	Moves to 74 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea.
	1903	Awarded an honorary doctorate of law by the University of Glasgow but is too ill to attend. Dies at 74 Cheyne Walk on 17 July.
	1904	A memorial exhibition is held in Boston.
	1905	Memorial exhibitions are held in London and Paris.

Timeline

1834

James Abbott Whistler is born on 11 July in Lowell, Massachusetts.

1837

Whistler family moves to Stonington, Connecticut.

1840

Moves with family to Springfield, Massachusetts

1843

Moves with family to St Petersburg in Russia, following his father Major George Washington Whistler's [link - Key figures] appointment as a civil engineer for the St Petersburg to Moscow railway. Receives drawing lessons from an art student, Alexander Ossipovich Karetsky.

1845

Attends drawing lessons at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg.

1848

1851-1854

Attends the United States Military Academy at West Point as a cadet. Studies drawing with Robert W. Weir. Adopts mother’s maiden name McNeill.

1854

Expelled from West Point for poor marks in chemistry. Works at the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey where he makes his first etchings.

1855

Resigns from the Coast Survey. Moves to Paris to study art.

1856

Enters as a pupil in the studio of the painter Charles Gleyre [link – Key figures]. Friends include the sculptor Charles Drouet [link – Key figures, GLAHA 46745].

1858

1859

Moves to London. Etches with Seymour Haden [link – Key figures]. Begins the ‘Thames Set’ of etchings [link – Works on Paper/Prints/GLAHA 46783].

1860

Exhibits At the Piano [link – Painting/Subject Painting/YMSM 24] at the Royal Academy in London. Meets Joanna Hiffernan [link – Key figures] who becomes his model and mistress.

1861

Meets the French painters Edouard Manet [link – Key figures] and Edgar Degas [link – Key figures]. Paints in Britanny.

1862

1865

Meets the painter Albert Moore [link – Key figures]. Paints with Gustave Courbet [link – Key figures] at Trouville.

1866

Makes a brief trip to Valparaiso in Chile. Separates from Joanna Hiffernan [link - Key figures].

1867

Moves to 2 Lindsey Row in Chelsea. Expelled from the Burlington Fine Arts Club for pushing Seymour Haden [link - Key figures] through a plate-glass window.

1870

Birth of his son Charles James Whistler Hanson [link – Key figures] by Louisa Fanny Hanson [link – Key figures], a maid.

1871

Paints Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1: Portrait of the Painter's Mother [link – Painting/Portraits/YMSM 101] and the first Nocturnes [link – Painting/City and Sea/Nocturnes] of the Thames. The ‘Thames Set’ of etchings [link – Works on Paper/Prints/GLAHA 46783] is published.

1873

1874

Holds first one-man exhibition at the Flemish Gallery in Pall Mall, London.

1875

Anna Whistler [link - Key figures] retires to Hastings.

1876-1877

Paints Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room [link – Design/Interiors/GLAHA 46071, Peacock Room video] at 49 Prince's Gate, the London home of the Liverpool shipping merchant Frederick Leyland [link – Key figures].

1877

1878

Moves to the White House. Makes first attempts at lithography. Wins Whistler v. Ruskin libel trial but is awarded only one farthing in damages. The costs of the trial place him in a difficult financial position.

1879

Birth of his second daughter, Maud McNeill Whistler Franklin [link – Key figures]. Declared bankrupt. Leaves for Venice with a commission from the Fine Art Society in London for 12 etchings.

1880

Returns to London. Exhibition of the ‘First Venice Set’ of etchings [link – Works on Paper/Prints/GLAHA 46803, 46804, 46822] at the Fine Art Society in London.

1881

Exhibition of 53 Venice pastels [link – Works on Paper/Pastels/GLAHA 46083] at the Fine Art Society. Anna Whistler [link – Key figures] dies at Hastings. Moves to 13 Tite Street. Becomes friendly with Oscar Wilde [link – Key figures].

1882

Walter Sickert [link – Key figures] becomes Whistler’s pupil and helps print his etchings.

1883

Second exhibition of Venice etchings at the Fine Art Society.

1884

Painting and etches in Holland. Exhibition of "Notes"–"Harmonies"–"Nocturnes" at the Dowdeswell Gallery in London. Moves to 454a Fulham Road.

1885

Gives the Ten O'Clock Lecture at Prince's Hall in London. Lives at the “Pink Palace”, The Vale in Chelsea.

1886

Second exhibition of "Notes"–"Harmonies"–"Nocturnes" at Dowdeswells'. A Set of Twenty Six Etchings of Venice is published by Dowdeswells'. Elected President of the Society of British Artists.

1887

Takes up lithography again. Introduced to transfer lithography by T. R. Way [link – Key figures]. Exhibition of 50 oils in Paris at the Galerie Georges Petit.

1888

1889

Paints and etches in Amsterdam. Made Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur.

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 Lang Freer [link – Key figures].

1891

1892

Promoted to Officier of the Légion d’Honneur. Holds a major retrospective exhibition at the Goupil Gallery in London. Moves to 110 rue du Bac in Paris. Takes a studio at 86 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs.

1894

Returns to London, Beatrix [link – Key figures] having been diagnosed with cancer.

1895

Exhibition of 75 lithographs at the Fine Art Society.

1896

Takes a London studio at 8 Fitzroy Street. Beatrix Whistler [link – Key figures] dies. Rosalind Birnie Philip [link – Key figures] becomes Whistler’s ward and executrix.