Tate Britain mounts major Whistler survey, challenging his combative legacy
Tate Britain in London is presenting a new exhibition of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), curated by Carol Jacobi, running from 21 May to 27 September. The show aims to reframe Whistler's reputation beyond his famous 1877 libel suit against critic John Ruskin, who called him "a coxcomb… flinging a pot of paint in the public's face." Jacobi argues Whistler was an extraordinarily productive and evolving artist, a contemporary of Degas and Manet who exhibited at the Salon des Refusés in the 1860s. Later, he declined to join the Impressionists, seeking a more fundamental beauty through abstraction, which the Tate claims "foretold the future of Modern art." This is only the fourth full survey since Whistler's death and the UK's first since 1994. The exhibition brings together most of his celebrated "nocturnes" (though not Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket) and shows his sketchbooks for the first time, including digital page-turning replicas. A research project identified Head of a Peasant Woman (1855-58) as his first known portrait from life. Jacobi emphasizes Whistler's relevance today through his exploration of beauty and everyday experience.
Key facts
- Exhibition at Tate Britain, London, 21 May to 27 September
- Curated by Carol Jacobi
- Fourth full survey since Whistler's death in 1903
- First UK survey since Tate's 1994 Whistler show
- Whistler sued John Ruskin in 1877 over 'coxcomb' remark
- Whistler won the case but token damages of a farthing contributed to bankruptcy
- Most nocturnes displayed except Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket
- Sketchbooks shown for first time with digital page-turning replicas
- Head of a Peasant Woman (1855-58) identified as first known portrait from life
- Whistler exhibited at Salon des Refusés in 1860s alongside Manet
Entities
Artists
- James McNeill Whistler
- Carol Jacobi
- John Ruskin
- Gustave Courbet
- Joanna Hiffernan
- Frederick Leyland
- Edgar Degas
- Édouard Manet
- Georges Seurat
- Paul Gauguin
- Vincent van Gogh
- Edward Poynter
- George du Maurier
- Alphonse Legros
- Henri Fantin-Latour
- François Bonvin
- Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
- Walter Greaves
- Beatrice Godwin
- Edward Godwin
- Gwen John
- Frederic Clay Bartlett
- Alice Pike Barney
- Mortimer Menpes
- Walter Sickert
- Maud Franklin
- Lady Archibald Campbell
- Dr. William McNeill Whistler
- Thomas Jeckyll
- Richard Norman Shaw
- Frederick Richards Leyland
- Paul Carter Robinson
- Sara Faith
- Horace D. Ballard
- Qamoos Bukhari
- Alexis Clark
- Caitlin Doley
- James Finch
- Miguel Gaete
- Elisa Germán
- Diana Greenwold
- Anna Gruetzner Robins
- Jane McCree
- Margaret MacDonald
- Patricia de Montfort
- Kenneth John Myers
- Ayako Ono
- Grischka Petri
- Renske Suijver
- Daniel E. Sutherland
- Joyce H. Townsend
- Dide Tengiz
- Isobel Muir
- Emmanuela Wroth
- Peter Daniel
- Rachel Scott
Institutions
- Tate Britain
- École des Beaux-Arts
- Société des Trois
- Salon de Paris
- Salon des Refusés
- Grosvenor Gallery
- Académie Carmen
- Musée d'Orsay
- National Gallery of Art, Washington
- masdearte
- Van Gogh Museum
- Mesdag Collection
- Freer Gallery of Art
- Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art
- Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg
- West Point
- Detroit Institute of Arts
- Artlyst
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Wadsworth Museum of Art
- Harvard Art Museums
- University of Cambridge
- University of Arkansas
- Westminster City Council
- Shinshu University
- Colby College Museum of Art
- FIZ Karlsruhe
- University of Bonn
- University of Glasgow
- The Mesdag Collection
- Lunder Institute
- Manton Foundation
- Exhibition on Screen
Locations
- London
- United Kingdom
- Lowell
- Massachusetts
- United States
- St. Petersburg
- Russia
- Sloane Street
- Paris
- France
- West Point
- Venice
- Italy
- Amsterdam
- Netherlands
- Bermondsey Wall East
- Kensington
- Prince's Gate
- Bond Street
- Millbank
- SW1P 4RG
- St Petersburg
- Washington, D.C.
- Chile
- Valparaiso
- North Africa
- Europe
- Brittany
- Hague