惠斯勒(1834～1903年)

Whistler, James (Abbott) McNeill

美国出生的英国画家、铜版画家和石版画家。作品风格独特，线条与色调和谐，富於装饰性与东方趣味。少年时曾入美国军事院学习，但不久即放弃转而从事艺术。1855年来到巴黎，学习绘画并且过着波希米亚人的生活。1863年定居伦敦，因其才华和常在公开场合曝光，使得他在当地颇为知名。对於将现代法国绘画和日本艺术引进英国，他的贡献颇多。1860年代和1870年代创作的许多作品都冠以音乐的标题，如《交响曲》、《协奏曲》等，理论依据则是「为艺术而艺术」。自1870年代起开始主要从事肖像画的创作，《艺术家的母亲》（1871～1872）是他最着名的画作之一。1870年代末去义大利威尼斯，在那里创作了许多油画、水彩画和铜版画，回英国後其铜版画在伦敦展出，立即获得声誉。

English version：

1834～1903年

Whistler, James (Abbott) McNeill

U.S.-British painter, etcher, and lithographer. Born in Lowell, Mass., he attended West Point but soon abandoned the army for art. In 1855 he arrived in Paris to study painting and adopted a bohemian lifestyle. In 1863 he moved to London, where he had considerable success, becoming widely famous for his wit and large public presence. An articulate theorist, he expounded on the “correspondences” between the arts, especially painting and music, and helped introduce Britain to modern French painting and Japanese art. From the 1870s on he concentrated on portraits. His most famous work is Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: The Artist's Mother (1871-72), known as Whistler's Mother. In 1877 he brought a libel suit against John Ruskin for attacking his Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (1875); he won his case but received damages of only a farthing, and the costs of the suit bankrupted him. A commission for etchings took him to Venice in 1880, and the 50-odd works he produced there won him success again in London on his return.