James McNeill Whistler Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother

Copyright Museé d’Orsay, paris
Date 1871
Materials Oil on canvas
Dimensions 144.3 cm x 162.5 cm
Marks Signed with a butterfly at the upper left
Further information Collection: Musée d’Orsay, Paris. www.musee-orsay.fr
Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1980 (101, plate 103).

Note This portrait was reputedly executed on the back of an old canvas, and was begun when a model fell ill and could not pose. Whistler’s mother initially stood for the painting, but had to sit because of her frailty. This is the first painting by Whistler to be called an “arrangement” of colours, a daring statement considering this was a portrait of his own mother. However, Whistler also succeeded in conveying something of her strong Protestant character in the sombre pose, expression and colouring. Look at how sensitively Whistler painted her face, lace cap, hands and handkerchief. Contrast this with the bolder shapes of her dress, the curtain and the wall. Whistler used a variety of techniques in this painting. The curtain is painted thinly, but the pattern is picked up with thicker spots of coloured paint. Notice that Whistler’s etching Black Lion Wharf is hung on the wall in the background.

Related works Kennedy 42 (GLAHA 46783), 97.