# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/james-abbott-mcneill-whistler
# Generated: 2026-08-31T14:48:46.693Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/james-abbott-mcneill-whistler"
name: "James Abbott McNeill Whistler"
slug: "james-abbott-mcneill-whistler"
description: "He called his most famous painting an \"arrangement in grey and black.\" The world called it Whistler's Mother — and turned it into the defining image of maternal devotion, which must have irritated a man who spent his career insisting that art had nothing to do with sentiment."
tagline: "American painter (1834-1903)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Whistler_Selbstportr%C3%A4t.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Artists"
  slug: "artists"
profileType:
  name: "Artist"
  slug: "artist"
birthDate: "1834-07-10"
deathDate: "1903-07-17"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           59.21
  momentum:             2.09976349172221
  historical:           24.812968
  currentAttention:     3.25
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: 239
tags:
  - name: "Artists"
    slug: "artists"
  - name: "Artist"
    slug: "artist"
  - name: "Painting"
    slug: "painting"
  - name: "Literature"
    slug: "literature"
  - name: "Talk Shows"
    slug: "talk-shows"
  - name: "DJ"
    slug: "dj"
  - name: "United States"
    slug: "united-states"
  - name: "Americas"
    slug: "americas"
sources:
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    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
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    title: "James McNeill Whistler"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B6%D1%8D%D0%B9%D0%BC%D1%81_%D0%A3%D1%96%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%80"
    title: "Джэймс Уістлер"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%B9%D0%BC%D1%81_%D0%A3%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BB%D1%8A%D1%80"
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    title: "James McNeill Whistler"
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    title: "James McNeill Whistler"
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    title: "James McNeill Whistler"
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  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McNeill_Whistler"
    title: "James McNeill Whistler"
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    title: "James Abbott McNeill Whistler"
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    title: "James McNeill Whistler"
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    title: "James Abbott McNeill Whistler"
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    title: "جیمز مک‌نیل ویسلر"
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    title: "James McNeill Whistler"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James Abbott McNeill Whistler"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James McNeill Whistler"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McNeill_Whistler"
    title: "James McNeill Whistler"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
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  - url: "https://fr.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Abbott_McNeill_Whistler"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  James Abbott McNeill Whistler was born July 10, 1834, and built his career primarily in the United Kingdom, painting in oils and watercolor while championing "art for art's sake" against Victorian moralizing. He signed his work with a stylized butterfly carrying a stinger — delicate art, combative man — and titled his paintings like musical compositions: "arrangements," "harmonies," "nocturnes," chasing tonal harmony over narrative. Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, painted in 1871, became the thing he couldn't escape, endlessly reproduced and parodied as the icon of motherhood he never intended it to be. His aesthetic theories and friendships with leading artists and writers shaped the culture around him until his death on July 17, 1903.