James McNeill Whistler has returned from Venice…

James McNeill Whistler has returned from Venice and become a great figure in London life, seeking publicity and winning points against Oscar Wilde in controversy.

In 1888 he marries Beatrix Godwin; he and his bride spend will much time in Paris on the Left Bank.

Whistler had joined the Society of British Artists in 1884, and on June 1, 1886, he was elected president.

The following year, during Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, Whistler had presented to the Queen, on the Society's behalf, an elaborate album including a lengthy written address and illustrations that he had made.

Queen Victoria so admired "the beautiful and artistic illumination" that she decreed henceforth, "that the Society should be called Royal."

This achievement was widely appreciated by the members, but soon it was overshadowed by the dispute that inevitably arose with the Royal Academy of Arts.

Whistler proposed that members of the Royal Society should withdraw from the Royal Academy.

This had ignited a feud within the membership ranks that hs overshadowed all other society business.

In May 1888, nine members writes to Whistler to demand his resignation.

At the annual meeting on June 4, he is defeated for reelection by a vote of 18–19, with nine abstentions.

Whistler and twenty-five supporters resign,  while the anti-Whistler majority (in his view) is successful in purging him for his "eccentricities" and "non-English" background.

With his relationship with Maud unraveling, Whistler suddenly proposes to and marries Beatrice Godwin (also called 'Beatrix' or 'Trixie'), a former pupil and the widow of his architect Edward William Godwin.

Through his friendship with Godwin, Whistler had become close to Beatrice, whom Whistler had painted in the full-length portrait titled Harmony in Red: Lamplight .

By the summer of 1888 Whistler and Beatrice appear in public as a couple.

At a dinner Louise Jopling and Henry Labouchère insist that they should be married before the end of the week.

The marriage ceremony is arranged; as a member of parliament, Labouchère arranges for the Chaplain to the House of Commons to marry the couple.

No publicity is given to the ceremony to avoid the possibility of a furious Maud Franklin interrupting the marriage ceremony.

The marriage takes place on August 11, 1888, with the ceremony attended by a reporter from the Pall Mall Gazette, so that the event receives publicity.

The couple leave soon after for Paris, to avoid any risk of a scene with Maud.