| 1834 |
James Abbott Whistler born in Lowell, Massachusetts, 11 July. |
| 1843 |
Family moves to St Petersburg, Russia, where his father has been a civil engineer on the railway from St Petersburg to Moscow since 1842. |
| 1845-6 |
Attends drawing lessons at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg. |
| 1848 |
Travels to London with mother and brother and attends school near Bristol. |
| 1849 |
Stays with the Hadens in London. Father dies and rest of family move to London, and then to Connecticut, United States. |
| 1851 |
Enters United states Military Academy at West Point. Adds his mother’s maiden name, McNeill, to his name. |
| 1854 |
Discharged from West Point although top of his class in drawing. Appointed to the drawing division of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, DC, where he etches maps and plans. |
| 1855 |
Leaves New York for England and stays with the Hadens in London. Travels to Paris and registers at the Ecole Imperiale et Spéciale de Dessin. |
| 1856 |
Enters the studio of Charles Gleyre. |
| 1858 |
Goes on etching tour of Northern France, Luxembourg and Rhineland with artist friend, Ernest Delannoy. ‘The French Set’; published in Paris and London. |
| 1862 |
Moves to London. |
| 1871 |
‘The Thames Set’; published in London. |
| 1878 |
Libel action against John Ruskin, as a result of which he awarded a farthing’s damages without costs and faces financial ruin. |
| 1879 |
Declared bankrupt. Commissioned by The Fine Art Society to go to Venice. |
| 1880 |
Returns from Venice to London. The Fine Art Society publishes and exhibits ‘The First Venice Set’. |
| 1882 |
Walter Sickert leaves the Slade School of art to become Whistler’s pupil and assistant. |
| 1883 |
Exhibition of a larger selection of the Venice etchings at The Fine Art Society. |
| 1886 |
‘The Second Venice Set’; published by Dowdeswells’ in London. |
| 1887 |
Visits Belgium and Holland, resulting in a series of etchings of Brussels. |
| 1888 |
Marries Beatrice Godwin, widow of the architect, Edward W. Godwin, andtravels on honeymoon to Paris, and the Loire, resulting in a series ofetchings. Teaches his wife to etch. |
| 1889 |
Spends two months in Amsterdam, resulting in his last major set of etchings. |
| 1892 |
Moves to Paris. |
| 1895 |
Travels with Beatrice to Lyme Regis, Dorset, where he works on etchings, lithographs and paintings. |
| 1896 |
Stays at several addresses in London. Beatrice is gravely ill, and dies of cancer in May. Whistler adopts her sister Rosalind Birnie Philip as his ward and makes her his executrix. Falls out with Sickert and with the printer Thomas R. Way. |
| 1901 |
Stays in Ajaccio, Corsica, making etchings, drawings and paintings. |
| 1902 |
Moves back to Chelsea and lives there with the Birnie Philips’. |
| 1903 |
Dies 17 July. Buried in Chiswick Cemetery. |
