A painting a day · No. 25 of 38
Whistler's Mother (Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1)
James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)
1871 · Oil on canvas · Musée d'Orsay, Paris
The story
Whistler's mother, Anna, stepped in when a model failed to turn up. He named it 'Arrangement in Grey and Black': for him it was about colour and shape, not about who was in it.
Look closer
- The picture on the wall is one of Whistler's own etchings.
- The curtain on the left is patterned like a Japanese print — Japan was the new fashion in art.
- Almost the whole picture is made of rectangles.
Did you know
In 1934 the United States put it on a Mother's Day postage stamp.
Why we can show it
James McNeill Whistler died in 1903. UK copyright lasts for the artist’s life plus 70 years, so even under today’s rules this painting would have been free for anyone to show since 1974. The photograph is a faithful copy of a flat work, which creates no new copyright. We do not store the picture: it comes from Wikimedia Commons each time it is needed. More on this.