James Abbott McNeill Whistler - The Butterfly Effect

This artistic movement, of which James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), an American-born artist, is the leading figure, has the distinctive feature of having emerged during his lifetime and of having influenced international contemporary art over a wide period.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, a singular, rebellious and influential artist, enjoyed great international success from the late 1870s.

The volume, an editorial expression of the exhibition "James Abbott McNeill Whistler. The Butterfly Effect" presented at the Rouen Beaux-Arts Museum, takes us from Scotland to Poland and from the Parisian salons to the coasts of Normandy to discover Whistler and "whistlerism", a movement contemporary to impressionism, but still little known. Capable of lasting well beyond his passing and reaching overseas, Whistler's legacy is also investigated in the catalogue in the reverberation it had on the American abstract movement of the mid-20th century and in its opening up to poetry, art criticism, photography and cinema.

Text in French, with an English summary.