Whistler's Mother
Famous seated portrait
Whistler's Mother is the popular name for an 1871 painting by American artist James McNeill Whistler, formally titled *Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1*.
It depicts the artist's mother seated in profile, dressed in black against a muted background.
The painting has become an icon of motherhood and Victorian dignity, often referenced or parodied in popular culture: The painting hung there like some kind of Whistler's Mother shrine to maternal guilt.
- paintingPigment on canvas
- portraitArtistic depiction of someone
- old womanAged female person
- grayNeutral achromatic hue
- blackDarkest possible hue
seated · sitting still · profile · Victorian · 19th century · canvas · American · frame · elderly · dress · somber · masterpiece · iconic · art history · American Gothic · arrangement · curtain · Louvre
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- MasterpiecesMona Lisa, Last Supper, Starry Night, The Scream, David
Whistler's MotherThe Scream
Expressionist image of dread
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Whistler's MotherAbstract Expressionism
Gestural, nonrepresentational American painting movement
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