Arrangement in Black, No. 3, Sir Henry Irving as Philip II of Spain 1876

This portrait, “Arrangement in Black, No. 3, Sir Henry Irving as Philip II of Spain,” is a striking example of James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s artistic style, known as “Nocturne” or “Arrangement”. The painting, created in 1876, features a dramatic, almost theatrical pose of the actor Sir Henry Irving as the Spanish monarch Philip II. Whistler, an American-born painter, moved to England and developed a preference for monochrome palettes and simplified forms that defied traditional portraiture. While the subject's face and body are visible, the focus of the painting is the interplay of light and dark hues and the subject's dramatic pose. It exemplifies Whistler's concept of art as a form of formal, abstract design rather than mere representation.