How The Artist's Mother Became an American Icon

Art is full of famous ladies. This is how Anna Whistler became an iconic symbol of motherhood. American artist James McNeill Whistler painted Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 in 1871. His mother, Anna Whistler, was living with him in London at the time. She served as his model. Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 is widely known as Whistler’s Mother. But Whistler felt that the composition of the painting deserved more attention than its subject. He complained, “To me it is interesting as a picture of my mother; but what can or ought the public to care about the identity of the portrait?” Whistler’s Mother was barely accepted to be displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1872. But it soon gained international acclaim. The French government bought the work in 1891. Today it hangs in Paris’s Musée d’Orsay. During the Great Depression, Whistler’s Mother came to symbolize a hardworking American sort of motherhood. In 1934 the U.S. Postal Service printed a version of the painting on stamps. The Ashland Boys’ Association of Ashland, Pennsylvania, erected a statue of Anna Whistler’s pose in 1938. Today the painting is considered to be James McNeill Whistler’s most famous work. Anna Whistler has become one of America’s most famous mothers.