James McNeill Whistler was a great artist. His painting popularly known as Whistler’s Mother (1871) is probably second to Mona Lisa as the most recognized painted woman.
American-born in 1834, art student in Paris in 1855, a time when a painter was judged by the ability to represent and reproduce reality, to copy nature. But as newly invented photography became popular, Whistler became committed to rescuing the canvas from the camera, which obviously produced a realistic image faster and cheaper.
