Today’s Monday Muse is about one of the most important paintings by American born artist James Whistler. The piece, done in 1871, has come to be known as “Whistler’s Mother”, but was titled by the artist, “Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1”.
It was painted in London, where his mother was living with him from 1864-1875. It was the first art by an American purchased by France and is one of the most important pieces of American art that is housed outside the United States.
In my opinion, the most interesting aspect of this painting is that as the title suggests, Whistler created this piece to work with the technical challenges of the black and grey tones. There is a story that the only reason his mother was in the painting is that the model originally scheduled to sit for the painting didn’t show up for the session. What was created from the session became historic.
-Jim