Who was Anna Whistler in Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1?

Anna Whistler, who is depicted in profile in the painting Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (1871), was the mother of the American-born artist James McNeill Whistler.12

While the work is widely known as Portrait of the Artist’s Mother and has become an iconic representation of motherhood, Whistler titled it Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 to emphasize his focus on the painting's formal, analytical composition rather than its subject matter. In the portrait, Anna Whistler’s figure is integrated into the artist's austere, geometric style, serving as a visual counterpoint to the painting's rigid vertical and horizontal axes.12