Whistler in His Time

James McNeill Whistler was a man of his own time and place. He did not seek inspiration on mountain tops or hermits' cells but in the hurly burly of society in London and Paris, on the misty river Thames and within the grim docklands. His interest in style, fashion and the aestheticism of Oscar Wilde undermined, at the time, recognition of the quality of his serious painting. But to Whistler, everything mattered, even the colour of the socks of a gallery attendant! Drawing out the major themes of his life and work, this book shows how, while much influenced by his own times, Whistler's art has an originality and brilliance which places him among the great painters of the nineteenth century.