A major James McNeill Whistler exhibition to open at Tate Britain in summer 2026

This summer, Tate Britain will stage Europe’s largest retrospective of James McNeill Whistler in more than three decades, bringing together around 150 works that span painting, drawing, printmaking, and design. The exhibition will offer a rare opportunity to experience the full scope of Whistler’s practice, from the iconic Arrangement in Black and Grey: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother to a remarkable group of nocturnes and previously unseen sketchbooks. Together, these works reveal how Whistler forged an ethereal vision of modern life and anticipated many of the ideas that would shape modern art.

Image credit: James Abbott McNeill Whistler Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 1871 Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

Opening with a gallery inspired by Whistler’s studio, the exhibition foregrounds the artist’s self-image and working environment. Major self-portraits from across his career will be shown alongside full-length portraits of fellow painter Maud Franklin, surrounded by Whistler’s own collections of East Asian ceramics, Japanese prints, and artist-designed furniture. The exhibition also traces Whistler’s nomadic, international career, from his early studies in St Petersburg and at West Point, explored publicly for the first time through his earliest notebooks, to his formative years in Paris and London, where he developed a lasting engagement with modern urban life and working-class subjects.

Later sections chart Whistler’s pioneering approach to landscape, colour, and harmony, including landmark works such as Wapping and Coast of Brittany, as well as a historic UK loan of Portrait of the Painter’s Mother, reunited with portraits of Whistler and his brother. The exhibition brings together the largest group of Whistler’s nocturnes in over 30 years and concludes with his late, increasingly abstract portraits and prints. Throughout, the exhibition presents Whistler as a fiercely independent and experimental artist whose pursuit of beauty reshaped exhibition-making, challenged Victorian society, and helped lay the foundations for modern art.

Date: 21 May – 27 September 2026. Location: Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Price: TBC. tate.org.uk