James McNeill Whistler

James McNeill Whistler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, and studied in Paris before settling in London in 1859. He believed in art for art’s sake and gave his paintings musical titles, as in Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, the portrait of his mother. His Thames nocturnes, influenced by Japanese prints, led to his famous libel case against the critic John Ruskin. He was also a superb etcher and died in London in 1903.