In his -Ten O'Clock Lecture- in 1885, American James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) presented himself as an artist set apart from the public, bearing no relation to the historical moment in which he lived. However, the myth of artistic independence that Whistler developed was but one part of a complex and highly significant relationship he had with the world around him. As a painter, printmaker, designer, traveler and performer, Whistler engaged with a variety of places, people and ideas that stretched from the United States to London, Venice and Japan.
Drawn entirely from the renowned...