Arrangement in Gray: Portrait of the Painter

James Abbott Whistler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. Beginning in 1842, his father was employed to work on a railroad in Russia. After moving to St. Petersburg to join his father a year later, the young Whistler took private art lessons, then enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts at age eleven. His father died from cholera at the age of forty-nine, and the Whistler family moved back to his mother's hometown of Pomfret, Connecticut.

Whistler was sent to Christ Church Hall School with his mother's hopes that he would become a minister. Whistler was seldom without his sketchbook and was popular with his classmates for his caricatures. However, after it became clear that a career in religion did not suit him, he applied to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where his father had taught drawing, and other relatives had attended. Portrait of Whistler with Hat (1858), Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Whistler firmly decided that art would be his future. For a few months he lived in Baltimore with a wealthy friend, Tom Winans, who even furnished Whistler with a studio and some spending cash. The young artist made some valuable contacts in the art community and also sold some early paintings to Winans. Whistler turned down his mother's suggestions for other more practical careers and informed her that with money from Winans, he was setting out to further his art training in Paris. Whistler never returned to the United States. Whistler arrived in Paris in 1855, rented a studio in the Latin Quarter, and quickly adopted the life of a bohemian artist. Whistler by William Merritt Chase, 1885.

Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl (1862), The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. In 1861 Whistler painted his first famous work, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl. The portrait of his mistress and business manager Joanna Hiffernan was created as a simple study in white; however, others saw it differently. The critic Jules Castagnary thought the painting an allegory of a new bride's lost innocence. Others linked it to Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, a popular novel of the time, or various other literary sources.

Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist's Mother By 1871 Whistler his most famous painting, the nearly monochromatic full-length figure entitled Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Artist's Mother, but usually referred to as Whistler's Mother.

Other pictures Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (1874), Detroit Institute of Arts Mother of pearl and silver: The Andalusian (1888–1900), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Arrangement in Pink, Red and Purple, 1883–1884, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio

Lady Monk Symphony in White No 2: The Little White Girl.

Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room. The Thames in Ice.

At the Piano The Last of Old Westminster. Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain.