He returned to London in 1880, but stayed only a short while. During the next ten years he had no permanent home; like a nomad he flitted from city to city, from studio to studio through England, France and Belgium. Finally he found some sort of a resting place in the rue du Bac 110, for many years his Paris home. It was a two-story house with a garden enclosed by a wall, as secluded a spot as one could find in the gay and noisy city. He was always fond of gardens of flowers. "In the roses of his garden he buried his sorrows," one of his most talented pupils, E. H. Wuerpel, tells us, in his little brochure "My Friend Whistler."
In the meanwhile his London Exhibitions became more and more numerous. During the next fifteen years the following eight exhibitions are on record.
1881—Jan.—An exhibition of fifty-three pastels at the Fine Art Society in Bond St., London.
1883—Feb.—Fifty-one etchings and dry points exhibited in Bond St. Gallery, London.
1884—May—Harmonies—Notes—Nocturnes—shown at the Dowdswell Gallery, London. At the same time an exhibition took place in Paris and Dublin. They were arranged according to his own idea of exhibiting.
JO (ETCHING).
1884—Nov.—Twenty-five works sent to the exhibition of the Dublin Sketching Club.
1886—May—A second series of Notes—Harmonies—Nocturnes shown at the Dowdswell Gallery.