122 years ago today, on July 17, 1903 (May 23, 1903 in the lunar calendar), American painter Whistler died in London. Whistler (1834~1903) was an American painter. Born on July 14, 1834 in Lowell, Massachusetts, and died on July 17, 1903 in London, England. When Whistler was 3 years old, his father retired as a road engineer building the Western Railway, and the family moved to Stonington, Connecticut. In 1841, at the invitation of Tsar Nicholas I, his father went to Russia to work on building the railway from Petersburg to Moscow, and the family moved to Fedburg. In 1849, Whistler's father died of illness in Russia, and his mother moved her family back to Stonington in the United States. In 1851, in compliance with his mother's request that he inherit his father's aspirations, he was admitted to West Point Military Academy, a famous military academy in the United States. However, due to lax discipline, he was rejected by the school in the third grade. In the summer of 1855, Whistler finally got the opportunity to study painting in Paris. He studied sketching and oil painting in Greier's studio and went to the Louvre Palace to copy ancient paintings. In France, he formed a trio with young painters H. Fontaine-Latour and A. Legro. He settled in England in 1859. The painting style was influenced by D. Velazquitch. His masterpiece "By the Piano" and "The Girl in White" have caused a sensation. In his later years, his works pursued Oriental tastes. In the paintings, young girls often wore Japanese kimonos and placed several pieces of China porcelain. In 1892, a retrospective exhibition of his works made him recognized by the American public as an American painter who accidentally lived in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom elected him as chairman of the British Artists Association, and soon France awarded him the title of Knight of the Legion of Honor. His works also include copperplate painting "French Suite", portrait painting "Mother" and group painting "Thames". Whistler was not only an oil painter, but also a prolific and talented lithographer and copperplate painter.