Cultural historian Antony Clayton will lead a walk around Thameside Chelsea focussing on one of the greatest artists of the Victorian London scene, James McNeill Whistler, currently the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Britain. We will see a number of the houses in which he lived and visit the remains of one of Victorian Chelsea’s great attractions, Cremorne Gardens, often painted by the artist.

Painter, printmaker, teacher, critic, polemicist, flamboyant dandy, acerbic wit, ebullient self-publicist, irascible litigant and a serious artist of considerable refinement, Whistler (1834-1903) was one of the most controversial figures in the London art world of the late-Victorian period.

Educated in the Parisian studio of Charles Gleyre and influenced by Japanese art and design, Whistler spent many of his most productive years in Chelsea, capturing crepuscular atmospheric effects on the Thames and producing some of his most memorable portraits.

His distinctive Nocturnes, Arrangements, Symphonies and Harmonies verged on abstraction and challenged the orthodox Victorian belief in the primacy of subject matter, so much so, that John Ruskin famously accused him of, “flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face”.

Many writers of the time, such as Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Verlaine, Swinburne and Oscar Wilde, were fascinated by his work, although he often fell out with friends and admirers.


Antony Clayton is the author of “Subterranean City: Beneath the Streets of London”, “London’s Coffee Houses: a Stimulating Story”, “The Folklore of London”, and “Secret Tunnels of England Folklore & Fact”. He also co-edited (with Phil Baker) and contributed to “Lord of Strange Deaths: the Fiendish World of Sax Rohmer“ and wrote “Netherwood: Last Resort of Aleister Crowley”, which also featured contributions from David Tibet, Gary Lachman and Andy Sharp. His latest book is “Mansion of Gloom: the Unsettling Legacy of Poe’s ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ ”.