London Census - Case Studies

James Whistler in the London 1861 Census

James Abbot McNeill Whistler, born in 1834 in Massachusetts, came to London in 1858 after studying art in Paris.

Witty, flamboyant and extravagant, he became a fixture of London society and the contemporary art scene after exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1860. He delighted in the city, finding inspiration both for his gritty etchings of London's dockyards, showing the reality of London's shipping industry, and for his romantic, atmospheric oil paintings of the Thames and its bridges.

He moved a great deal around London, and lived in Wapping and Rotherithe while producing his etchings, to better observe the areas.

Throughout the 1860s his output changed dramatically, as he developed a decorative and vivid style which eventually ensured him lasting recognition, although it was poorly received at the time. In fact, Whistler is famous for winning a court case against the critic John Ruskin, who with typical acidity declared Whistler´s Nocturne in Red and Gold little more than flinging a pot of paint in the face of the public; after which Whistler was left bankrupt and moved to Venice to be with his then- mistress.

He returned to London in 1880, exhibiting with greater success; and lived in Hampstead with his wife Beatrix until her death in 1896.

On the 1861 census we can see him living at 15 Hemus Terrace, Chelsea aged 26, with his father William as his lodger. Interestingly, their birthplace is incorrectly listed as New York, not Lowell in Massachusetts; this could be either a small inaccuracy on the part of the numerator or a characteristic attempt of the inventive Whistler to romanticize his past!

He died at 74 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea in 1903.

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