The Anglo-American artist James McNeill Whistler is a household name - a man who inspired and astonished the Victorian world. Less well known, though, is the influence of nature on Whistler´s work. This innovative and compelling study reconsiders Whistler´s work from the context of his military service and his relationship with "nature at the margins", showing how Whistler´s observation of nature and its moods underpinned his haunting visions of nineteenth-century life.