This is a complete list of the extant oil paintings by the American-born, British-based artist James McNeill Whistler (10 July 1834 â 17 July 1903). Whistler created some 550 works in oil during his lifetime, of which around 340 survive today. As a leader of the Aesthetic Movement and a founder of Tonalism, Whistler had a profound effect on art in the 19th century and influenced many artists, particularly in America. Whistler was a proponent of the credo "art for art's sake" and sought to achieve, above all, tonal harmony in his works. Many of his paintings contain musical terms such as "symphony", "nocturne", "harmony", and "arrangement" in their titles, reflecting the parallels he found between his art and music.
Today, Whistler's works are held by a large number of institutions around the world with significant collections housed at the Freer Gallery, Hunterian Art Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, and the Tate Britain. This list is based on the 2020 online catalog compiled by Margaret F. MacDonald and Grischka Petri which was developed from the 1980 catalogue raisonné by Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles.