Whistler. Dandy and Disruptor

Van Gogh Museum

16 October 2026 - 10 January 2027

James McNeill Whistler is one of the most important artists of the 19th century. With his belief that art – like music – should above all evoke a mood, he helped shape modern art. Alongside his paintings, he is also renowned for his many etchings and drawings, made in cities such as Paris, Amsterdam and Venice.

Whistler’s rebellious nature and strong convictions regularly set him on a collision course with critics and patrons. With his distinctive and innovative art, he was at times considered too progressive – even by avant-garde artists. Whistler spent months, sometimes even years, working on a single artwork, while the final work appears almost effortless.

At the time, the influential English art historian Roger Fry wrote about Whistler:

‘… he seemed to be always inaugurating a revolution, leading intransigent youth against the strongholds of tradition and academic complacence.’

Whistler & Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh admired Whistler and mentioned his etchings in various letters. He counted Whistler among the artists he and his brother Theo had ‘loved in our time’.

Whistler and Van Gogh shared a fascination with Japanese aesthetics and pushed the boundaries of what art could be. Van Gogh referred to the famous portrait of Whistler’s mother in a letter to his sister Willemien, writing:

‘There’s a painting that Whistler did of his mother which is like that. But above all in our old Dutch paintings we find it sometimes. When I think of Mother she too appears like that to me.’

This retrospective was realised in collaboration with Tate Britain in London. The exhibition James McNeill Whistler, which received widespread critical acclaim, will be on display there from 21 May to 27 September 2026.

The exhibition Whistler. Loving the Netherlands runs concurrently at The Mesdag Collection in The Hague, focusing on Whistler’s time in the Netherlands and work he produced during his visits. 

IMAGES

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter, 1872, oil paint on canvas, 74.9 x 53.3 cm, Detroit Institute of Arts. Bequest of Henry Glover Stevens in memory of Ellen P. Stevens and Mary M. Stevens. Photocredit: © Detroit Institute of Arts / Bridgeman Images

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother, 1871, Oil paint on canvas, 144.3 x 162.5 cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Photocredit: © Musée d’Orsay / RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, At the Piano, 1858–59, Oil paint on canvas, 67.6 × 93.4 cm, Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, Bequest of Louise Taft Semple

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Silver – Chelsea, 1871, Oil paint on wood, 50.2 × 60.8 cm, Tate, Bequeathed by Miss Rachel and Miss Jean Alexander 1972

James McNeill Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 3, 1865–67, Oil paint on canvas, 52.0 × 76.5 cm, The Henry Barber Trust, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham

James McNeill Whistler, The Last of Old Westminster, 1862, Oil paint on canvas, 61 × 78.1 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, A. Shuman Collection—Abraham Shuman Fund

James McNeill Whistler, The Coast of Brittany, 1861, Oil paint on canvas, 87.3 × 115.6 cm, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT, In memory of William Arnold Healy, given by his daughter, Susie Healy Camp

James McNeill Whistler, The Palace: white and pink, 1879/80, Pastel and conté crayon on paper, 19.7 × 30 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Paul Mellon Fund and Patrons’ Permanent Fund

James McNeill Whistler, Nocturne, c.1875–78, Oil paint on canvas, 50.6 × 76.7 cm, The White House.

James McNeill Whistler, Brown and Gold: Self-portrait, c.1895–1900, Oil paint on canvas, 95.8 × 51.5 cm, Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, Bequeathed by Rosalind B. Philip (1958)

James McNeill Whistler, Variations in Violet and Green, 1871, Oil paint on canvas, 61.5 × 36 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

James McNeill Whistler.Arrangement in Yellow and Gray: Effie Deans  1876–1878 Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

James McNeill Whistler, Rotherhithe, 1860, Etching on paper, 27.6 × 20 cm, Joan M. Winchell Collection / Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Gift of the Art Institute of Chicago

Whistler. Loving the Netherlands

The Mesdag Collection, The Hague

16 October 2026 - 10 January 2027

The pioneering artist James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) visited the Netherlands more than ten times between 1863 and 1902. It was one of his favourite destinations. He regarded the dreamlike etchings he made of Amsterdam’s canals as his finest work.

Whistler’s refined watercolours and small-scale paintings also reveal his love of the watery Dutch landscape. He worked in towns and provinces including Dordrecht and Zeeland.

‘Holland is the country for artists. It has atmosphere.’

In this exhibition, Whistler’s work is shown alongside that of Dutch contemporaries. His visits to the Netherlands did not go unnoticed. Whistler had a keen eye for the beauty of the Dutch landscape, prompting Dutch artists to look anew at their own country. This resulted in atmospheric waterscapes by artists including Willem Witsen and George Hendrik Breitner.

Contact with Mesdag

Whistler was also frequently in contact with Hendrik Willem Mesdag, who likely encouraged him to paint the Scheveningen coastline and the North Sea. On his final day in the Netherlands, Whistler visited Museum Mesdag. More than a century later, this is where the remarkable works and stories of his time in the Netherlands are on view.

This exhibition is presented in parallel with Whistler. Dandy and Disruptor at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

James McNeill Whistler, Snow, Amsterdam, 1882, watercolour on paper, private Collection

James McNeill Whistler, The Embroidered Curtain, 1889, Etching and drypoint on paper, 24 × 16 cm, Amsterdam City Archives

James McNeill Whistler, The Pierrot [from the Amsterdam Set], 1889, Etching and drypoint on paper, 23.1 × 15.9 cm, Amsterdam City Archives

James McNeill Whistler, Zaandam, 1889, Etching and drypoint on paper, 13 × 21.6 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Purchased with the support of the F.G. Waller-Fonds

Portraits! Surprising Encounters from Botticelli to Lempicka

Gemäldegalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

16 October 2026 – 14 March 2027 

How do we see ourselves – and how have people in different historical periods wished to be seen? The special exhibition “Portraits! Surprising Encounters from Botticelli to Lempicka at the Gemäldegalerie (Old Master Paintings) ‒ Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, invites viewers on a fascinating journey through the history of portraiture. Unusual juxtapositions of works spanning five centuries reveal striking similarities, bringing the pieces to life and providing opportunities to reflect on the presentation of the self and others, as well as on staging, roles, and character. Masterpieces by artists such as Botticelli and Lempicka, Mino da Fiesole and Rogier van der Weyden, Dürer and Giorgione, or Rubens and Gainsborough are brought into conversation with one another, revealing striking and often surprising affinities. 

Works that have never “met” before come together for the first time, offering a fresh perspective on themes such as identity, beauty, status and power. 

Portraits reveal more than just people’s outward appearance. They also reveal details about self-awareness, character, emotion and staged representation. Clothing, posture, and accessories act as codes for social, political and gender affiliation. By comparing portraits from different regions and eras, visitors can recognise, trace, and understand artistic decisions and visual strategies: What was considered beautiful, dignified or worthy of authority? How did these ideals evolve over the centuries? The exhibition reveals the variety of these responses, while also highlighting the surprising connections between them. 

The exhibition’s starting point is the outstanding international collection of portraits at the Gemäldegalerie, which is complemented by a selection of loans from other museums of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, including the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery) and the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery), the Ägyptisches Museum (Egyptian Museum) and the Skulpturensammlung (Sculpture Collection). It presents a multifaceted panorama of portraiture from the 15th to the 20th centuries.

Around 90 masterpieces by artists such as Petrus Christus, Mino da Fiesole, Botticelli, Giorgione, Dürer, Cranach the Elder, Holbein the Younger, Titian, Sofonisba Anguissola, Rembrandt, Zurbarán, Anna Dorothea Therbusch, and Tamara de Lempicka encompass a wide variety of portraiture’s diverse aspects, ranging from glorious portraits of rulers to intimate scenes of friendship and proud self-proclamations. Each encounter tells its own story and invites wonder, comparison and discovery. 

The Exhibition Sections 

Various forms and functions of portraits are examined in the four sections of the exhibition. The prologue highlights the astonishing constancy of mimetic portrait art, which has spanned many centuries, and also sheds light on the genre’s roots in Europe. 

Portrait Types North and South of the Alps 

The first section of the exhibition explorse the development of portraiture in Italy and the North during the Renaissance. Various prototypes emerged, such as the northern three-quarter profile used by Rogier van der Weyden and the strict profile preferred by Filippo Lippi. Differing tendencies towards naturalism and idealisation soon mingled and influenced the development of portrait painting in the following centuries. 

Self-Representation of the Elite 

Portraits were a powerful means of social representation and distinction. The clothing, poses, and size of a work all revealed the aspirations and status of the person depicted. Anthonis Mor’s prestigious, knee-length portrait of the Duchess Margaret of Parma, with her regal gaze, is on a par with Giambattista Moroni’s portrait of the nobleman Don Gabriel de la Cueva. 

Family, Friendship and Intimacy 

On the one hand, the section on family, friendship and intimacy is dedicated to the private aspects of portraiture. Relatives, close friends, and loved ones are captured in images that serve as personal mementos. Sofonisba Anguissola’s mother, Bianca, engages with her daughter while she paints, in a manner that is similar to how the wife of the painter Eugen Spiro looked at her husband 380 years later. Portraits of the deceased offer a final glimpse of them. 

Portraits of Art Collectors and Artists 

The final section of the exhibition focuses on portraits of art collectors and artists. For centuries, self-portraits have not only served as a means of self-exploration, but also as a way of positioning oneself and one’s work within traditional contexts. Therbusch portrays herself as an intellectual, while Poussin and Anton Raphael Mengs use their self-portraits to reflect on their lives and artistic fame.Self-Reflections in the Age of Selfies 

“Portraits“ is not just an art historical exhibition; it also reflects our current image-obsessed world. In the age of selfies and social media:how do we construct our identity? How do we read faces? And what does our view reveal about ourselves? The reflection of masterworks from the past provides the perfect opportunity to study and understand these current questions. 

Curatorial Team 

The exhibition is curated by Sven Jakstat and Stephan Kemperdick, with assistance from Marie-Luise Hugler.

Exhibition Catalogue 

A richly illustrated catalogue provides an in-depth exploration of the works and their relationships with each other (Michael Imhof-Verlag, Petersberg). 

Porträts! Überraschende Begegnungen von Botticelli bis Lempicka (Petersberg: Michael Imhof-Verlag, 2026), 256 pages, ISBN: 978-3731915980, €49.

IMAGES

Sofonisba Anguissola, Bianca Ponzoni Anguissola, 1557, 100 x 76,3 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Kat.Nr. 1705
Foto: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie / Jörg P. Anders

Sandro Botticelli, Giuliano de'Medici, 1478, 57,1 x 38,4 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Kat.Nr. 1068
Foto: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie / Jörg P. Anders

Sebastiano del Piombo, Junge Dame mit Fruchtkorb, 1512/13, 77,7 x 61,3 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Kat.Nr. 259B
Foto: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie / Jörg P. Anders

Giovanni Cariani, Bildnis eines Astronomen, um 1520, 91,9 x 82,1 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Kat.Nr. 2201
Foto: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie / Jörg P. Anders

Anthonis Mor, Herzogin Margarete von Parma, um 1562, 106,8 x 77,6 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Kat.Nr. 585B
Foto: Christoph Schmidt, Berlin

Eugen Spiro, Die Gattin des Künstlers, 1929, 100,5 x 81,5 cm, Neue Nationalgalerie, Inv.-Nr. A II 706
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026

Tamara de Lempicka, Porträt, um 1931, 45 x 37 cm, Neue Nationalgalerie, Inv.-Nr. B UHP 87/13
Foto: Jochen Littkemann © Tamara de Lempicka Estate, LLC / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026

Wilhelm Schadow, Italienerin, 1831, 70,3 x 59 cm, Alte Nationalgalerie, Inv.-Nr. W.S. 196
Foto: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Andres Kilger

Hans Holbein d.J., Der Kaufmann Georg Gisze, 1532, 97,5 x 86,2 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Kat.Nr. 586
Foto: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie / Jörg P. Anders

Giambattista Moroni, Don Gabriel de la Cueva, 1560, 114,8 x 90,8 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Kat.Nr. 79.1
Foto: Christoph Schmidt, Berlin

Eva Gonzalès A Free-Spirited Artist

The Petit Palais 

 15 September 2026 - 24 January 2027

Van Gogh Museum

12 February 2027 -20 June 2027

The Petit Palais is presenting a major monographic exhibition devoted to the painter Eva Gonzalès (1847–1883), prior to its presentation at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in February 2027. A contemporary of Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot—with whom she is often associated—Eva Gonzalès has never been the subject of a large retrospective, neither in France nor internationally. Endowed with a remarkable sensibility, she was the only pupil of Édouard Manet, with whom she shared an exceptional artistic relationship. Supported by a loving and cultured family, she succeeded in establishing her own distinctive voice at a time that was not particularly welcoming to women artists. 

Featuring almost one hundred works— paintings, pastels, and prints—this exhibition pays tribute to an artist with an assured talent who died prematurely at the age of thirty-four. The exhibition is organized chronologically so as to trace her career and invites visitors to discover a determined personality by stepping into the intimacy of her private world. Coming from a well-educated, bourgeois background, Eva Gonzalès benefited from an early age from an environment conducive to the development of her artistic calling. Her father, Emmanuel Gonzalès, was a renowned journalist and man of letters who rubbed shoulders with many important figures of the Parisian art scene, while her mother, musician Céline Ragut, hosted a salon that was frequented by the French capital’s literary and social elite. 

Although she trained in the studio of Charles Chaplin, the young painter soon broke away to cultivate her own sensitive style, as may be seen in works like La Psyché (c. 1869–1870, National Gallery, London), La Fenêtre (c. 1865–1870, Denver Art Museum), and Le Moineau (c. 1865–1870, private collection).

Her meeting with Édouard Manet in 1869 was a key turning point in her career: she became his only pupil and one of his models, while at the same time, continuing to pursue an independent career. She exhibited regularly at the Salon between 1870 and 1883, without ever becoming a member of the Impressionist group. Notable works presented at the Salon include Une loge aux Italiens (1874, Musée d’Orsay, Paris) and Le Clairon (1870, Musée de Gajac, Villeneuvesur-Lot). These paintings clearly reveal the influence of Manet, both in terms of the choice of subject matter and the free and confident brushwork. 

The exhibition showcases a subtle and intimate body of work, attentive to female figures and everyday life. Light-filled interior scenes, graceful portraits, and landscapes painted along the Normandy coastline make up a highly refined pictorial world, as evidenced by Jeune fille au réveil (1877–1878, Kunsthalle, Bremen) and Miss et bébé (1877–1878, National Gallery of Art, Washington).

 In 1879, Eva Gonzalès married the painter and printmaker Henri Guérard. Their relationship, nourished by an ongoing artistic exchange, was marked by a genuine intellectual and emotional bond. Her sister Jeanne—who served as her model, pupil, and confidante—also played a major role in her work. Jeanne appears wearing her sister Eva’s wedding dress in a striking mise en abyme for a composition that would sadly echo the twists of fate to come. A few years after Eva’s untimely death, Jeanne would marry Henri Guérard. 

In 1883, Eva Gonzalès’s career came to a very abrupt end: she died just a few days after the birth of her son, shortly after the passing of Édouard Manet. Despite the positive critical reception of her work during her lifetime and a retrospective held at the Salon known as La Vie moderne in Paris in 1885, her work gradually faded into obscurity.  

Long overshadowed by the major narratives of Modernism, Eva Gonzalès is now considered a pivotal figure in the painting of her era. This exhibition aims to restore her rightful place in art history and to reveal—through her unique vision—the brilliance of a corpus that has gone unrecognized for too long. A selection of works by Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, and Marie Bracquemond are presented alongside hers, pointing at the intersecting trajectories of the female artists of that time, and the conditions in which they created their art in the late nineteenth century. 

The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum of Amsterdam and benefits from the exceptional support of the Musée d’Orsay. 

CURATORS: Annick Lemoine, former Director of the Petit Palais, President of the Musées d’Orsay and de l’Orangerie 

SPECIALIST CURATORS: Stéphanie Cantarutti, Head Heritage Curator, Head of Modern Painting (1800-1890) at the Petit Palais Fleur Roos Rosa de Carvalho, Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

IMAGES

1. Alfred Stevens, Eva Gonzalès au piano, 1878. Huile sur panneau, 54,9 × 45,4 cm. Bequest of John Ringling, 1936, Collection of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, State Art Museum of Florida, Florida State University

2. Eva Gonzalès, La Fenêtre, v. 1865-1870 Huile sur toile, 53,34 × 43,5 cm. Denver Art Museum. Painting and Sculpture Department acquisition funds with additional funds from Friends of Painting and Sculpture. Photograph courtesy of the Denver Art Museum

3. Eva Gonzalès, Le Chapeau bleu, v. 1875-1876. Huile sur toile, 15 × 11,5 cm. Collection particulière. © 2026 Christie’s Images Limited

4. Eva Gonzalès, La Psychée, v. 1869-1870. Huile sur toile, , 39 x 26,5 cm. Bought thanks to generous legacies from Mrs Martha Doris Bailey and Mr Richard Hillman Bailey, Miss Gillian Cleaver, and Ms Sheila Mary Holmes, with the support of the National Gallery Trust, 2024. © The National Gallery London

5. Eva Gonzalès, Le Moineau, v. 1865-1870. Huile sur toile, 65,5 x 50,5 cm. Collection particulière. © 2018 Christie’s Images Limited

6. Edouard Manet, Portrait d’Eva Gonzalès,1870. Huile sur toile, 19,1 x 133,4 cm. Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, 1917, the National Gallery, London. In partnership with Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. © The National Gallery London

7. Eva Gonzalès, L’Enfant de troupe, 1870. Huile sur toile, 133 x 109 cm. Musée de Gajac, Villeneuve-sur-Lot. © Photo Maitetxu Etcheverria

8. Eva Gonzalès, Jeune fille aux cerises, v. 1870. Huile sur toile, 56,2 x 47,4 cm. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection. The Art Institute of Chicago 
​​​​​​​

9. Eva Gonzalès, Une loge aux italiens, v. 1874. Huile sur toile, 97,7 x 130 cm. Paris, musée d’Orsay. © GrandPalaisRmn (musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski 

10. Eva Gonzalès, Enfants dans les dunes de sable, Grandcamp, v. 1877-1878. Huile sur toile, 46 x 56 cm. Acquired in 1972 (Shaw Fund). Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin. Photo : National Gallery of Ireland 

11. Eva Gonzalès, L’Alcôve, v.1875-1878. Huile sur toile, 46,5 x 38,4 cm. Collection particulière

12. Eva Gonzalès, La Matinée rose, 1874. Pastel sur papier et châssis entoilé, 93,8 x 74,3 cm. Paris, musée d’Orsay, conservé au musée du Louvre. © GrandPalaisRmn (musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski

13. Eva Gonzalès, Le Réveil, 1877. Huile sur toile, 81,1 x 100,1 cm. Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Foto : Lars Lohrisch, Public Domain Mark 1.0

14. Eva Gonzalès, Portrait de Jeanne Gonzalès, v. 1870-1872. Huile sur toile, 55,3 x 46 cm. Collection particulière /

15.Eva Gonzalès, Portrait de Jeanne Gonzalès, v. 1873-1874. Huile sur toile, 56 x 46,5 cm. Courtesy of Sotheby’s

16. Eva Gonzalès, La femme en bleu, v. 1871-1872. Huile sur toile, 49 x 31,5 cm. Collection particulière / Jacques Bétant, Lausanne Museum. Photo Tihamér Lukács

17. Eva Gonzalès, L’Indolence, v.1871-1872. Huile sur toile, 99,5 × 81 cm. Collection de S.A.S. le Prince de Monaco. Cliché Geoffroy Moufflet © Archives du Palais de Monaco – IAM

18. Eva Gonzalès, Les Souliers roses, v. 1878-1879. Huile sur toile, 26 x 35 cm. Collection particulière.

19. Eva Gonzalès, La Promenade à âne (Henri et Jeanne), v. 1880-1882. Courtesy of Bristol Museums & Archives / Photo David Emeney

20. Eva Gonzales, Nounou avec enfant, v. 1877-1878. Huile sur toile, 65 × 81.4 cm. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington

21. Eva Gonzalès, La Servante ou à la barrière, v. 1865-1870. Huile sur toile, 41 x 32,5cm. Petit Palais, musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris. CCØ : Paris Musées / Petit Palais. 

22. Eva Gonzalès, Une mariée, 1879. Pastel sur toile, 46,2 x 38,2 cm. Collection de S.A.S. le Prince de Monaco. Cliché Geoffroy Moufflet. © Archives du Palais de Monaco - IAM

23.Eva Gonzalès, Eva Gonzalès, Au bord de la mer (Honfleur), 1881–82, pastel on canvas, 46.3 × 37.2 cm, private collection