Whistler's Mother

Also known as Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, this 1871 oil painting by James McNeill Whistler shows Anna McNeill Whistler, the artist's mother, seated in profile against a grey wall. The picture rests on an almost monochrome palette, lightened only by small touches of white, and on a striking economy of means: the background is reduced to a few faintly sketched areas of colour, so the eye stays on the figure. Curtains on the left and a small framed picture on the right, showing a view of the Thames, reveal the influence of Japanese art on the composition. According to the anecdotes that circulate about it, Whistler first imagined his mother standing, but she tired too quickly and the sitting pose was adopted instead. The title Whistler chose, which stressed the formal side of the work, had to be softened when it went on show in London, and that tension between abstraction and portraiture has helped fix its fame. Today it hangs in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and it remains one of the most recognisable works by an American artist outside the United States.

Painter

James McNeill Whistler

Date

1871

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

144 × 163 cm

Museum

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Movement

Tonalism

Genre

portrait

Depicts

old age, seat, woman, Anna McNeill Whistler, curtain, Black Lion Wharf

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