James Abbott McNeill Whistler

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. After studying in St. Petersburg and Paris, Whistler moved to London in 1859 where he began to establish his technique of tonal harmony. 

In 1895, Whistler's wife was ill with cancer so he came to Lyme for a few months so she could recover by the seaside and he could paint. They stayed at the Royal Lion Hotel and Whistler had a studio at the top of Broad Street, close to the blacksmith's forge of Samuel Govier. He painted him and his daughter as well as nine year old Rosa Rendell, the daughter of George John Rendall, a high class grocer at London House, Broad Street who became Mayor and Alderman of Lyme Regis.

The British Museum has fourteen lithographs produced in Lyme during the same period, including one of John Grove, the landlord of the Royal Lion Hotel at that time.