James McNeill Whistler: In Their Own Words

Quotes on art and life

"No. I ask it for the knowledge I have gained in the work of a lifetime."

Whistler under cross-examination in Whistler v. Ruskin, when asked whether he asked two hundred guineas for two days' work; reprinted in The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (1890) 1878

"Nature contains the elements, in colour and form, of all pictures, as the keyboard contains the notes of all music."

The Ten O'Clock lecture, London, February 1885 1885

"Nature is very rarely right, to such an extent even, that it might almost be said that Nature is usually wrong."

The Ten O'Clock lecture, London, February 1885 1885

"As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight."

The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (1890) 1890

"Art should be independent of all claptrap."

The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (1890) 1890

"I say I can't thank you too much for the name 'Nocturne' as a title for my moonlights!"

Letter to his patron Frederick Leyland, quoted in Ronald Anderson and Anne Koval, James McNeill Whistler: Beyond the Myth (1994), p. 186

"I shall be born when and where I want, and I do not choose to be born in Lowell."