This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.

The celebrated American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler found inspiration from diverse sources like Rembrandt, Velázquez, and ancient Greek sculpture to cultivate his own highly influential and unique style. With an extensive body of work encompassing nearly 500 paintings, etchings, pastels, watercolors, sketches, and lithographs, Whistler demonstrated mastery across numerous artistic mediums.

A leading figure in the Aesthetic Movement, Whistler was an outspoken advocate, writer, and lecturer on the principle of "art for art's sake." In instructing his students, he stressed elemental design, economy of technique, avoidance of overwrought methods, and tonal harmony in the final result. Whistler has been the subject of many major museum exhibitions, scholarly studies, and books.

Like the Impressionists, he drew inspiration from nature itself. However, Whistler contended that it was the role of the artist to interpret what he observed rather than be constrained by literal truth, and to "elicit splendid harmony from chaos."