Page "James Abbott McNeill Whistler" Paragraph 12

Conditions improved during the summer of 1858.

Whistler recovered and traveled with fellow artist Ernest Delannoy through France and the Rhineland.

He later produced a group of etchings known as " The French Set ", with the help of French master printer Auguste Delâtre.

During that year, he painted his first self-portrait, Portrait of Whistler with Hat, a dark and thickly rendered work reminiscent of Rembrandt.

But the event of greatest consequence that year was his friendship with Henri Fantin-Latour, whom he met at the Louvre.

Through him, Whistler was introduced to the circle of Gustave Courbet, which included Carolus-Duran ( later the teacher of John Singer Sargent ), Alphonse Legros, and Édouard Manet.