Brain Food #452
The mother
Whistler’s Mother, one of the most iconic paintings of all time, was not about motherhood. At least not on the surface.
Its creator, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, framed it as an exploration of colour, a modulation of tones of grey. Its original title was Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1, inspired by the titles of musical compositions. During that period, Whistler was experimenting with colour modulations, testing the limits of a single colour within a painting, simultaneously removing the need for a narrative.
But a closer look reveals the infinite patience only a mother could have; some of us have been the recipients of it, others the givers, others both. She patiently posed for her son, often standing, for days, while gazing into nothingness.
Ironically, Anna Matilda Whistler wrote to her sister to outline — the essence of selflessness — how patient her son was being with her:
"I stood bravely, two or three days, whenever he was in the mood for studying me as his pictures are studies, and I so interested stood as a statue! But realized it to be too great an effort, so my dear patient Artist who is gently patient as he is never wearying in his perseverance concluding to paint me sitting perfectly at my ease."
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