An illustrated study of American painter James Whistler.

A fascinating look at the partnership of artist James McNeill Whistler and his chief model, Joanna Hiffernan, and the iconic works of art resulting from their life together “[A] lavish volume. . . . Illuminating. . . . MacDonald’s deep research has . . . unearthed important new facts.”—Gioia Diliberto, Wall Street Journal In 1860 James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) and Joanna Hiffernan (1839–1886) met and began a significant professional and personal relationship. Hiffernan posed as a model for many of Whistler’s works, including his controversial Symphony in White paintings, a trilogy that fascinated and challenged viewers with its complex associations with sex and morality, class and fashion, academic and realist art, Victorian popular fiction, aestheticism and spiritualism. This luxuriously illustrated volume provides the first comprehensive account of Hiffernan’s partnership with Whistler throughout the 1860s and 1870s—a period when Whistler was forging a reputation as one of the most innovative and influential artists of his generation. A series of essays discusses how Hiffernan and Whistler overturned artistic conventions and sheds light on their interactions with contemporaries, including Gustave Courbet, for whom she also modeled. Packed with new insights into the creation, marketing, and cultural context of Whistler’s iconic works, this study also traces their resonance for his fellow artists, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edgar Degas, John Singer Sargent, and Gustav Klimt.

Contrary to the myth which divorces modernist painting from literature, this new interpretation of Whistler shows that his art was profoundly influenced by it. The book also examines the nature of Whistler's modernity, his relationship with English and French painting, and throws new light on the famous libel trial with Ruskin. Forms part of Tate Publishing's British Artists series.

Over 70 illustrations. James McNeill Whistler was a rebel, dandy, wit, eccentric, and above all, an extraordinary artist. He departed, almost entirely, from the established realist style of his day and developed his own unique approach, emphasizing color and light and embracing the principles of art for art's sake. This stunning visual portrait traces the artist's career and art from his early childhood in America to adult life in England and France. The full range of his work from early etchings to late minimalist paintings is represented by 75 full-color reproductions of his most important pieces.

Catalog of the exhibition of the same name held at: Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, from October 16, 2013, through January 12, 2014; Addison Gallery of American Art, Philips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, from February 1, 2013, through April 13, 2014; and Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., May 2-17, 2014.

The discovery of this masterpiece Whistler's "Portrait of William Merritt Chase," along with another important Whistler painting, "Harmony in Black, No10," reveals exciting new discoveries on Whistler's artistic methods, from the Old Masters and the artistic truisms of the Renaissance. Documented analysis including x-ray examination, forensics and recognized paintings by Whistler's followers will confirm this portrait and "Harmony in Black, No10," with x-ray revealing two lost paintings. These Whistler paintings connect scholarship and identify paintings worthy of merit and what makes a masterpiece a masterpiece.