| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
The work was shown at the 104th Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Art in London (1872), but first came within a hair's breadth of rejection by the Academy. This episode worsened the rift between Whistler and the British art world; Arrangement would be the last painting he would submit for the Academy's approval.
The sensibilities of a Victorian era viewing audience would not accept what was ostensibly a portrait being exhibited as a mere "arrangement"; thus the explanatory title "Portrait of the Artist's Mother" was appended. It was from this that the work acquired its popular name. After Thomas Carlyle viewed the painting, he agreed to sit for a similar composition, this one being titled Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2. Thus the previous painting became Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1 more or less by default.
Whistler would eventually pawn the painting, which was acquired in 1892 by Paris' Musée du Luxembourg . Whistler's works, including this one, had attracted a number of imitators and a number of similarly posed and restricted color palette paintings soon appeared particularly by American expatriate painters. For Whistler, having one of his painting displayed in a major museum helped attract wealthy patron. In December 1884, Whistler wrote:
As a proponent of ars gratia artis, Whistler was perplexed and annoyed by the insistence of others upon viewing his work as a "portrait." In his 1890 book, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, he writes:
Given this outlook, regardless of the level of affection Whistler felt for his own mother, one finds an even more divergent use of the image in the Victorian era and later, especially in the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in, as an icon for motherA mother is typically the biological or social female parent of a child or offspring while the male parent is the father. The maternal bond describes the feelings the mother has for her (or another's) child. In the case of a mammal such as a human, the mohood, affection for parents, and "family values" in general. For example, in 1934Events January-April January 1 Alcatraz becomes a federal prison. January 7 First Flash Gordon comic strip is published. January 10 Execution of Marinus van der Lubbe January 24 Einstein visits White House January 26 The Apollo Theater opens in Harlem, Ne the U.S. Post officeUnited States Postal Service (USPS) is the United States government organization responsible for providing postal service in the United States and is generally referred to as "the post office. It was created to fulfill the mandate in the United States Con issued a stamp engraved with a stylized image of "Whistler's Mother," accompanied by the slogan "In Memory and In Honor of the Mothers of America."
Later the public's interpretation of the symbolism of the painting went even farther afield, and it appeared in a myriad of commercial advertisements and parodiesIn contemporary usage, parody is a form of satire that imitates another work of art in order to ridicule it. Parody exists in all art media, including literature, music, and cinema. In ancient Greek literature, a parody was a type of poem that imitated an, such as doctored images of the subject watching a televisionSee TV (disambiguation) for other uses and Television (band) for the rock band Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. The term has come to refer to all the aspects of television p, sometimes accompanied by slogans such as "Whistler's Mother is Off Her Rocker." The artwork played a major part in the 1997 comical farce, Bean.
Paintings