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My Mother
By James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
In the Luxembourg, Paris
Whistler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, of Irish parentage. His father, Major George Whistler (who had married an American lady), afterwards went to Russia as an engineer, and his son spent his childhood there, returning to America with his mother at his father's death. He was educated at the Military School at West Point, but he had no liking for a soldier's career, and in 1856 he started his art studies in Paris. His first artistic success was gained with the "Femme Blanche," which was rejected for the Salon, but created a sensation in Art circles when shown in the Salon des Refuses. Later he came to London and took up his abode in Chelsea, which he made the centre of his activities until his death.
Whistler the man was no less remarkable than Whistler the artist, and in combination the two made up a personality which was remarkable though not lovable. He was a great egoist and was impatient of anything that savoured of criticism or of contradiction of his own ideas. When Ruskin, the champion of misunderstood artists, condemned his work, he brought an action against him for libel, so incensed was he that anybody should venture to criticise him strongly.
Out of all his eccentricities, however, his genius emerges and will redeem his memory from all ungraciousness. His exquisite style combines the softness and "atmosphere" of the French Impressionists, the tone values of Velazquez, and the bright harmony of the Japanese, with his own individuality. A delicate monotony of colours was his forte, and with soft colours he softened the hardness of realism to the impalpable visions such as nature reveals through the mists before the sun finishes playing upon them ere chasing them away. Thus his portraits, while convincingly real, are rather phantoms revealing the spirit of the sitters than material shapes picturing their bodies.
From the book "Famous Paintings" printed in 1913.
Large files of this public domain print are available at Stock Photos at Songs of Praise
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Online "Name the Painting"
Paintings by Whistler
at Olga's Place
Biography of Whistler
at Olga's Place
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
biography at Web Museum
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
from the ArtChive
James McNeill Whistler
links at Art Cyclopedia
Whistler
at Wikipedia
Whistler
from the Worldwide Art Gallery
Famous Paintings in this Series
M. Bompard
A Prayer to the Madonna
Botticelli
The Madonna and Child
Sir Edward Coley
Burne-Jones
King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid
Sir Edward Coley
Burne-Jones
The Mill
Jean Charles Cazin
Ishmael
John Constable
Boat-Building Near
Flatford Mill
John Crome
On the Skirts of the Forest
Pascal Adolphe Jean
Dagnan-Bouveret
The Blessed Bread
Theophile Emanuel Duverger
Alone
C.W. Furse
Diana of the Uplands
W.H. Gore
"'Listed"
Peter Graham
A Rainy Day
Jean Baptiste Greuze
The Listening Girl
Sir James Guthrie
A Highland Funeral
Frans Hals
A Man With a Glove
In His Hand
Hans Holbein the Younger
The Ambassadors
Henry Holiday
Dante and Beatrice
Sir Edwin Landseer
Suspense
Sir Edwin Landseer
A Naughty Child
H.H. La Thangue
Mowing Bracken
Sir Thomas Lawrence
Caroline of Brunswick,
Queen of George IV.
G.D. Leslie
Sun and Moon Flowers
J. Seymour Lucas
Flirtation
Jean Louis Ernest
Meissonier
The Print Collector
Jean Francois Millet
The Angelus
Jean Francois Millet
Going to Work
Sir William Quiller
Orchardson
The Farmer's Daughter
Ralph Peacock
Ethel
Rembrandt
His Own Portrait
Sir Joshua Reynolds
The Infant Samuel
Sir Joshua Reynolds
The Strawberry Girl
George Romney
The Parson's Daughter
W. Dendy Sadler
A Good Story
W. Dendy Sadler
Friday
William Small
The Last Match
J.M. Swan
On the Alert,
Lioness and Cubs
J.M.W. Turner
Peace: Burial at Sea of the
Body of Sir David Wilkie
J.M.W. Turner
Rain Steam and Speed
The Great Western Railway
Velazquez
Portrait of a Spanish Lady
"La Femme a L'Eventail"
Frederick Walker
The Vagrants
George Frederick Watts
Hope
James McNeill Whistler
My Mother
Anders Zorn
A Fisherman
Index Page
Famous Paintings
