Whistler House Museum of Art - Lowell, Massachusetts

The WHMA maintains a permanent collection of 19th and early 20th century New England Representational artists and etchings by James McNeill Whistler.

Portrait of “James B. Francis” by R.M. Staigg
“Apres James McNeil Whistler, Arrangement in Grey and Black” 1906, Oil on canvas, by Edith Fairfax Davenport, a cousin of Whistler. This is an exact scale copy of the original painting which, it is said, heralded modern art. The original hangs in the Musee D’Orsay in Paris.
“Lowell in 1825” by Benjamin Mather
“Rev. Theodore Edison, 1875” by Thomas Bayley Lawson

“The Children” by Frank W. Benson
Works by Arshile Gorky, George Loftus Noyes, Harold C. Dunbar, William Preston Phelps, Frederick Porter Vinton, Louis Kronberg, William Morris Hunt, and Thomas Bayley Lawson

Etchings by Whistler, including “Annie Seated” 1858, “The Pool” 1859, “The Old Rag Woman” 1859, “Bibi Lalouette” 1859. Whistler’s etchings are known for their sensitivity of etched line as well as atmospheric effects which he created by varying the inking of the plate in brown tones, a technique that was considered a novelty at the time. Whistler was considered eccentric and controversial for his manner of entitling his etchings with a number as well as a title and for distributing white and yellow butterflies at his exhibitions. The butterflies were counterparts for his unique butterfly monogram which is usually imprinted on his etchings. Whistler’s etchings were printed in few impressions and are considered very rare. (Source: Antiques & Art Around Florida, Lorena Overstreet Allen,M.Ed., ISA)
Changing exhibits of the permanent collection, including Aldro T. Hibbard and many others.

The Artist’s Studio is located here. The Whistler House Artist in Residence program provides talented artists the opportunity to work in this studio.
Visitors are encouraged and welcomed to stop by and talk with our current Artist in Residence, Meredith Fife Day.

James Abbott Whistler was born in Lowell on July 11, 1834. He was christened at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church on Merrimack Street. He later included his mother’s maiden name, McNeill, in his signature. He attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point for several years before leaving the army for a life dedicated to art. The artist spent most of his creative years in Paris and London.
Whistler is considered an early modernist painter, cultivating a delicate art of suggestion in his oils and etchings, approaching the effects of French impressionism.
His painting, “Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1: Portrait of the Artist’s Mother”, quickly became controversial for the unusual placement of the sitter shown in profile and the objects rendered in strong simple shapes. The French government purchased the painting for the Musee du Luxembourg in 1891. It was the first work included in a Parisian museum by an American-born artist!
For this reason, it became wildly popular in the United States, and is now considered one of the four most recognizable American paintings (along with Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” 1930, Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” 1942, Andy Warhol’s “Campbell Soup Can” 1961) (Sources: Wikipedia, Columbia Encyclopedia)
Whistler is also acknowledged as the finest etcher since Rembrandt.

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