Tate Britain Unveils Largest Whistler Retrospective in 30 Years

Tate Britain has opened its doors to the most extensive look at James McNeill Whistler that Europe has seen in a generation, pulling together roughly 150 pieces that trace the American-born artist’s career spanning his painting, drawing, printmaking and design, from his iconic portrait of his mother to a remarkable collection of nocturnes and previously unseen sketchbooks.

The show opens with a room inspired by Whistler’s own studio, bringing together four major self-portraits from across his career alongside two full-length portraits of fellow painter Maud Franklin, all surrounded by his personal collection of East Asian ceramics, Japanese prints and artist-designed furniture, as well as his easel, palette and brushes.

Whistler spent his career refusing to sit still, geographically or artistically. He trained in St Petersburg and at West Point before settling into the bohemian circles of Paris, and later split his time between London and the French coast. Along the way he developed a moody, suggestive style of painting night scenes, the “Nocturnes”, that scandalised critics in his own era but now look like a clear forerunner of more abstract modern art.