How Chinamania, Japonisme shaped James McNeill Whistler’s art, now on view at Tate Britain
Chinese pottery and textiles and Japanese crafts profoundly influenced James McNeill Whistler’s work, as seen in a retrospective at Tate Britain
This summer’s major London exhibition will undoubtedly be the James McNeill Whistler retrospective at Tate Britain. It is comprehensive and sprawling, requires a solid half-day commitment at least and is of particular interest to Asian visitors to the British capital. It is a fitting exhibit for the Tate.
Though American-born, Whistler was closely associated with Chelsea, just downriver from the Tate at Millbank.
The retrospective, on until September 2026, tackles every period of Whistler’s life and career, from his time at West Point, in New York, and St Petersburg to his years in Paris, London and Venice. But a major theme throughout is Whistler’s relationship with Asia.
Whistler greatly appreciated Edo-period ukiyo-e (floating world) woodblock prints and Japanese artists’ use of bold outlines, high horizon lines and restricted colour palettes – all techniques he adopted.
Whistler’s period in London – the last four decades of the 19th century – was a time of great appreciation of Japonisme in England. Arthur Lasenby Liberty’s eponymous department store on London’s Regent Street, initially a small shop importing Japanese and “Oriental” goods, attracted crowds of window shoppers, including Whistler.