James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Whistler, James Abbott McNeill (1834–1903), U.S. artist. Born in Lowell, Mass., in his youth he lived with his family in Russia. Later he attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point but failed academically after 3 years. He resumed his art studies in Paris and moved to London, where he lived until his death. His best-known painting is Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1: Portrait of the Artist's Mother (1872), commonly called “Whistler's Mother.” Whistler believed paintings should be abstract responses to the artist's imagination.