James Abbot McNeil Whistler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts and attended West Point Military Academy, 1851-4. Failing there, he worked as a Navy cartographer, which at least taught him the technique of etching, before going to Paris to study painting in 1855. There he met Fantin-Latour and Degas and was influenced by Courbet. In 1859, he moved to London but continued to visit Paris frequently. In 1879, he went to Venice to make a series of etchings, lived as a dandy, and had a deserved reputation as a satirical wit, well able to keep up with his friend Oscar Wilde. The early influence of Fantin-Latour was succeeded to some extent by that of Manet, who was one of Whistler's fellow exhibitors in the Salon des Refuses of 1863, but an even more marked influence was that of Japanese art in the 1860's, which was finding its way to Europe.

The best collections of his work are in the Freer Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Glasgow University; Tate Gallery, London; Ottawa; The Louvre, Paris, and several American Museums. His etchings are well represented in the Royal Collection.