See the Work
Where to experience James McNeill Whistler's photographs in person, and resources to learn more
The White Girl, 1861
Permanent Collections
Institutions holding James McNeill Whistler's original prints and negatives, plus the public-domain archive these images are drawn from.
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
The Prints & Photographs Division holds the FSA/OWI collection — thousands of James McNeill Whistler's Depression-era photographs. All are in the public domain and available online.
Browse OnlineNational Gallery of Art
Washington, D.C.
Holds Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl, Wapping, Grey and Silver: Chelsea Wharf and Mother of Pearl and Silver: The Andalusian, together with a deep holding of etchings and lithographs including full First and Second Venice Sets.
Learn MoreThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York City
Holds the portraits of Henry Irving, Théodore Duret and Connie Gilchrist, Cremorne Gardens, No. 2, early sketchbook drawings and many prints.
Learn MoreCleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, Ohio
Holds The Violin Player, a pastel study for the unrealised South Kensington Museum mosaic commission, and an extensive collection of etchings and lithographs.
Learn MoreFreer Gallery of Art (National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian)
Washington, D.C.
Home of Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room, on permanent view since 1923, and the large Whistler collection formed by Charles Lang Freer.
Learn MoreThe Hunterian, University of Glasgow
Glasgow, Scotland
Received much of the contents of Whistler's estate and publishes the online catalogues of his paintings and etchings.
Learn MoreMusée d'Orsay
Paris, France
Home of Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, the portrait of the artist's mother, bought by the French state in 1891.
Learn MoreMajor Exhibitions
Notable retrospectives and exhibitions of James McNeill Whistler's work.
Salon des Refusés
Palais de l'Industrie, Paris
The exhibition of works refused by the official Salon, where Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl drew attention alongside Manet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe.
Whistler memorial exhibitions
Boston, London and Paris
The exhibitions held in the years after Whistler's death that first gathered his paintings and prints on a large scale.
James McNeill Whistler
Tate Gallery, London; Musée d'Orsay, Paris; National Gallery of Art, Washington
The most important retrospective since the memorial shows, including Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1.
Songs on Stone: James McNeill Whistler and the Art of Lithography
The Art Institute of Chicago
A survey of Whistler's lithographs accompanying the Art Institute's catalogue raisonné.
The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler
Royal Academy of Arts, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington
Centred on The White Girl and Wapping, an exhibition that restored Hiffernan's place in the work of Whistler and Courbet.
Ruffled Feathers: Creating Whistler's Peacock Room
Freer Gallery of Art, Washington
An exhibition on the making of the Peacock Room and Whistler's use of Asian motifs.
Books & Films About James McNeill Whistler
Essential resources for understanding James McNeill Whistler's life and work.
Essential Reading
Whistler's own anthology of letters, the Ruskin trial record, the Ten O'Clock lecture and sharp-tongued marginalia - the primary source for his views and his wit.
The authorised two-volume biography by friends who knew Whistler in his last decade, rich in first-hand anecdote.
A detailed reconstruction of the 1878 libel trial and what it revealed about Victorian attitudes to art.
A biography that tests Whistler's self-made legend against the documentary record.
The history of Leyland's dining room from its design to its installation at the Freer Gallery of Art.
A modern full-length biography drawing on Whistler's extensive correspondence.
Films & Other Resources
The catalogue raisonné of the oil paintings (Yale University Press), now continued online by the University of Glasgow.
Catalogue of the 1994-95 retrospective at the Tate Gallery, Musée d'Orsay and National Gallery of Art.
Two-volume Art Institute of Chicago catalogue raisonné of the lithographs, with the surviving Whistler-Thomas Way correspondence.
The free online catalogue of every etching and its states, with the history of the Thames and Venice sets.
Online Resources
Explore the Archive
Browse 1059 James McNeill Whistler works from the National Gallery of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
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