Van Gogh Museum hosts first Whistler retrospective in Netherlands

The Van Gogh Museum and The Mesdag Collection are staging the largest European retrospective of James McNeill Whistler in thirty years, and the first ever in the Netherlands. Developed with Tate Britain, the exhibition covers Whistler's career from his birth in the United States in 1834 to his death in 1903. Whistler, a controversial and influential figure, moved to Paris at twenty-one and spent nearly fifty years between Paris and London, associating with Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet, and Oscar Wilde. He advocated for art for art's sake, rejecting moral or social purposes. Known for self-promotion and dandyism, his work is celebrated for its beauty.