A painting you’ll almost certainly recognise — even if only via a thousand internet memes — is heading to Tate Britain this summer.

Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1

It forms part of a major loan for Europe’s largest retrospective of James McNeill Whistler in more than 30 years. Bringing together around 150 works, the exhibition promises a rare, once-in-a-generation chance to see the full range of Whistler’s output, from painting and drawing to printmaking and design.

The exhibition opens with a room inspired by Whistler’s own studio. Four key self-portraits spanning his career will be shown together for the first time, surrounded by objects from his personal collection — East Asian ceramics, Japanese prints, artist-designed furniture, and even his easel, palette, and brushes — to recreate his working world.

Whistler’s famously nomadic life, which took him across four continents, is explored in depth. For the first time, his teenage years are examined through studies made at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg and at West Point in the United States, including his earliest notebooks, now on public display for the first time.

After moving to Paris at 21, Whistler immersed himself in bohemian life, developing a lifelong fascination with working-class subjects and urban spaces. His etchings of modern life are reassessed alongside early oil paintings from nature, portraits of friends, and the self-portrait Whistler Smoking (1856–60), which has been unseen since his death.

In his late twenties, he shuttled between Paris and London, experimenting with early impressionist techniques and painting landscapes en plein air — from the French coast to the industrial drama of the River Thames.

The exhibition also brings together his first and largest landscapes, including Coast of Brittany (1861) and Wapping (1860–64), alongside the domestic interiors that first earned him critical acclaim.

The exhibition, James McNeill Whistler, opens at Tate Britain on 21st May 2026.

Pricing is to be confirmed, but it will be free for members.