The Gentle Art: Friends and strangers in Whistler’s prints

The range will include figures emerging from the shadows in the artist’s early ‘French set’ of the 1850s, intimate domestic scenes of friends and fellow artists in London, and late lithographs of nudes and portraits of his sister-in-law ‘Bunnie’, made in the 1890s. Whistler’s relationships with a number of friends quickly soured as they became the victims of his humour. On such occasions his butterfly signature acquired a barbed tail to match the sting of his sharp wit, as immortalised in his collection of letters and pamphlets, such as The Gentle Art of Making Enemies that is displayed in the exhibition.

Museum Opening Times

Tuesday - Saturday: 10:00 - 17:00
Sundays & Bank Holidays: 12:00 - 17:00
Closed Good Friday, 24-26 & 31 December and 1 January