Whistler's Legacy

Few artists were as determined to shape their own legacy as James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Fiercely protective of his reputation, he denounced would-be biographers, published The Gentle Art of Making Enemies as his own autobiography, and destroyed works he thought unworthy of his genius, declaring more than once that “to destroy is to survive.” Yet despite his efforts at control, Whistler’s legacy has proved as unpredictable and contentious as the man himself.

In this engagingly written book...