James McNeill Whistler

I was at a mini music festival not too long ago and as I was walking through the maze of rooms, this screen caught my eye. The screen, entitled 'Blue and Silver: Screen with Old Battersea Bridge' (1871-1872) is by the American-born, British-based artist James Whistler.

The colours caught my eye at first, it has a real dreamlike quality. It's made from distemper and gold paint on brown paper laid on canvas stretched on the back of silk. 

This is the man himself, photographed in his Paris studio with the screen in the background. I think I need this for my future dream  house.

An interesting fact about Whistler is that he sued an art critic who accused him of metaphorically "flinging a pot of paint in the face of the public"!