About the Book
Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 100. Chapters: Albert Henry Krehbiel, Alson S. Clark, Arthur Hill Gilbert, California Art Club, California Plein-Air Painting, California Plein-Air Revival, California Tonalism, Carl Eytel, Childe Hassam, Christian von Schneidau, Dulah Marie Evans, E. Charlton Fortune, Edmund C. Tarbell, Edward Simmons (painter), Emil Carlsen, Francis Focer Brown, Frank Harmon Myers, Frank Nuderscher, Frank Weston Benson, George Herbert Baker, Granville Redmond, Hayley Lever, Hoosier Group, J. Alden Weir, J. Ottis Adams, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, John Henry Twachtman, John Willard Raught, Joseph DeCamp, Joseph Kleitsch, Joseph Raphael, List of works by Frank Weston Benson, Lucy Bacon, Mary Agnes Yerkes, Paul Dougherty (artist), Richard E. Miller, Richmond Group, Robert Reid (painter), Roy Cleveland Nuse, Sueo Serisawa, Sunlight (Benson), T. C. Steele, Ten American Painters, Theodore Robinson, Thomas Dewing, Thomas P. Barnett, Tonal Impressionism, Wilhelmina Weber Furlong, Willard Metcalf, William Merritt Chase. Excerpt: James Abbott McNeill Whistler (July 10, 1834 - July 17, 1903) was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo, "art for art's sake." His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger for a tail. The symbol was apt, for it combined both aspects of his personality-his art was characterized by a subtle delicacy, while his public persona was combative. Finding a parallel between painting and music, Whistler entitled many of his paintings "arrangements," "harmonies," and "nocturnes," emphasizing the primacy of tonal harmony. His most famous painting is Whistler's Mother (1871), the revered and oft parodied portrait of motherhood. Whistler influenced the art world and the broader culture of his time with his artistic theories and his friendships with leading artists and writers. James Abbott Whistler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He was the first child born to Anna Matilda McNeill and George Washington Whistler, a prominent engineer. She was his father's second wife. At the Ruskin trial (see below), Whistler claimed the more exotic St. Petersburg, Russia as his birthplace: "I shall be born when and where I want, and I do not choose to be born in Lowell," he declared. In later years, he would play up his mother's connection to the American South and its roots, and present himself as an impoverished Southern aristocrat (although to what extent he truly sympathized with the Southern cause during the American Civil War remains unclear). After her death, he would adopt her maiden name, using it as an additional middle name. Young Whistler was a moody child prone to fits of temper and insolence, who-after bouts of ill-health-often drifted into periods of laziness. His parents discovered in his early youth that drawing often settled him down and helped focus his attention. Whistler circa 1847-49Beginning in 1842, his father was
