The Massachusetts-born, Saint Petersburg-raised, West Point-educated, Paris-trained, London-residing, Japan-worshipping James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)-in addition to exemplifying the cosmopolitanism of his age-revolutionized the arts of painting, printmaking, interior decoration, exhibition design, and artistic self-promotion. We will study his many achievements in part through study of selected works and in part through considerations of the varied cultural circles in which he moved: French avant-garde painters of several generations, British Pre-Raphaelites and Aesthetes, American expatriate artists, and a panoply of European poets, industrialists, and celebrities. The considerable archival resources and substantial bibliography devoted to him will assist us in our investigations and itself be a field of inquiry. Requirements and basis for evaluation: synopses of the weekly readings; two short written assignments, an oral report, to be presented in revised, written form at semester's end; and a five-minute critical commentary on another student's oral report. An overnight field trip to Washington, D.C., is likely.