James McNeill Whistler

James McNeill Whistler was born in Massachusetts, spent part of his boyhood in Saint Petersburg and left West Point before settling in Paris and then London. A leading voice of "art for art's sake", he gave his paintings musical titles, arrangements, harmonies and nocturnes, to put tone and colour ahead of story. When John Ruskin accused him of flinging a pot of paint in the public's face, Whistler sued for libel in 1878 and won a farthing in damages.