Women as portrayed in orientalist painting (vanglaise)

"This volume could have borne the title ""Whistler and his time"", or even to paraphrase the words which often referred to Edgar Degas, ""this illustrious stranger"". James Abbott McNeil Whistler has not enjoyed the same attention and consideration as Degas - and this despite the innumerable historical references to his work. The mentions bear witness to the importance of this atypical late 19th-century artist, unwilling to be classified under one ""ism"" or another. Born and bred American, Whistler learnt French while living in Russia, where his father went to work and studied at the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Henri Murger published in 1851 an internationally successful book, ""Scenes of bohemian life"", by which Whistler was greatly influenced. Perhaps its depiction of free thought and action were to precipitate his decision to travel to Paris. After à spell of military service, back in the United States in November 1855, James Whistler was granted his family´s permission to undertake the study of painting in Paris."