Speakasso › Paintings › Whistler's Mother
Whistler's Mother
James McNeill Whistler, 1871
The painting's real title is Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1: Whistler insisted the subject mattered less than the harmony of tones, as in music. The world remembered it otherwise, as a portrait of his mother. According to family lore, Anna Whistler agreed to pose when a hired model failed to turn up; standing tired her, so her son seated her in profile. A severe silhouette, a white cap, a dark wall, a light curtain with a Japanese pattern. In America it became an emblem of motherhood, known simply as Whistler's Mother.
What is in the painting
- Strict profile. The woman sits in exact profile, hands folded in her lap holding a white handkerchief.
- Picture on the wall. On the left hangs a framed print, also by Whistler.
- Feet on a stool. Her feet rest on a low footstool.
Did you know? In 1891 the French state bought the painting, the first work by an American artist to enter France's national collections.
About the painting
- Artist
- James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)
- Year
- 1871
- Style
- Tonalism, Aestheticism
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 144.3 × 162.4 cm
- Where to see it
- Musée d'Orsay, Paris
How to describe it in Speakasso
In Speakasso you describe the painting in your own words and an AI draws it again. These words are forbidden in this round — each one costs 15 points:
A description that scores high
An elderly lady in a long black dress sits in strict profile facing left, hands folded in her lap holding a white handkerchief, her feet on a low footstool. She wears a white lace cap tied under her chin. On the left hangs a long dark drape with a pale Japanese pattern; on the grey wall behind her, a small framed black-and-white print. Only greys and blacks. Calm, flat, quiet oil painting.
The tricky part: Call her headwear a white lace cap tied under the chin, and the fabric at left a long dark drape with a Japanese pattern.
The method behind it: what is painted first, then where things are, then colour and light, then the style. Read the full guide
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