The Massachussetts-born Whistler worked through much of his Gilded Age career as an expat in Britain. Irascible and eloquent, the painter promoted the slogan “Art for Art’s sake” as deftly as he promoted himself for his own sake. At one point he famously sued John Ruskin for libel, gaining a nominal victory in an award of one farthing—the proceedings produced the bootleg book, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies. Whistler named many of his works borrowing terms from music, moving painting towards something more abstract and self-sufficient than the rendering of a close likeness. He was also an enthusiastic pursuer of Japanese aesthetics, incorporating color schemes and abstractions into his sometimes impressionistic works.