James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Whistler was an American born artist-painter and etcher, who lived and worked primarily in England where he made his mark on the world of art. James Abbot McNiell Whistler was born on July 11, 1834 in the quaint town of Lowell Massachusetts. He was the third son of his West Pointer father, Major Geroge Washington Whistler and his second wife Anna Matilda McNiell. His father’s military background had their family move around from city to city in the United States and eventually had them move to Russia when he was aged nine where his father worked on a railroad line for the Russian Government. There the family stayed for several years where the young artist spent most of it studying drawing at the Imperial Academy of Science.