Saneth Joy T.

Austria

BSA 1-2

Arts Appreciation – Assignment no.1

Analysis of a Painting
Formal Analysis

Identification:
Painter: James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Title of the painting: Whistler’s Mother
Production Site: London
Production Date: 1871
Previous Location: Whistler's Mother has been exhibited several times in the United
States. It was shown at the Atlanta Art Association in the fall of 1962, the National
Gallery of Art in 1994, and the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2004. It was exhibited at the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts from June to September 2006. From May 22 to September
6, 2010, it was shown at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. The
painting was exhibited at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, from
March 27 to June 22, 2015, and then at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown,
Massachusetts. It was shown at the Art Institute of Chicago from March 4 to May 21,
2017. It had returned to the Musee d'Orsay as of early August 2019.
Current Location: Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France – since 2019

Technical Data:
Dimensions: Height: 144.3 cm (56.8 in). Width: 162.4 cm (63.9 ic)
Materials: Oil on canvas
General Condition: No data assumed in good condition

Theme:
Portrait of Anna McNeill Whistler.
Anna grips a handkerchief in her lace-cuffed hands. She is wearing a gold wedding ring.
Anna's hidden legs are angled and drop to a footrest. The dark wood chair legs on the
bottom right, and three minimal diagonal strokes on the lower left, serve to establish
the surface of the floor. A silver-grey wall in the backdrop, with a deep color curtain.
Anna's dress goes down beyond out of the frame. Her stiff posture and steady stare, at
once harsh and peaceful, enhance the painting's already strong physical presence. It
speaks to popular ideals of motherhood and family values of the time, which are
frequently linked to this image

Function:
Supposed commissioned portrait from a Member of Parliament to paint his daughter,
Maggie Graham. It was said that Maggie Grahams was not able to attend on that day
and it was during this time that James decided to do his mother’s portrait so he
requested his mother to step in. His mother originally stood but Whistler thought that
his mother gets tired and it would be more comfortable for her to sit. In addition, the
portrait was intended to demonstrate whistler's recent focus on tonal harmonies over
subject matter.

Structure:
Whistler's mother is almost life-size within the frame. The artist designed the frame
himself. Its golden hue reflects the modest gold wedding band on his mother's finger.
The artist utilized a range of techniques. His mother's darkly colored attire is thinly
painted, but his treatment of her hands and face with patches of pink and yellow is
bright, reflecting his concern in layering up colors to highlight and to look alive his
subject.
The painting conforms to the simple geometry. It’s almost like a Mondrian in that you
get these basic, rectangular shapes — the curtain which creates a straight line, the
paintings on the wall. There’s so much restraint, it’s very flat and modernist.
In this painting Whistler was able to express his style in tonal composition and harmony.
At first glance the painting appears simple. However, upon closer inspection the artwork
indeed portrays a balance between the different shapes in the picture. Whistler was
able to achieve harmony in the composition of this artwork. He was able to use the right
rectangular shape for the picture on the wall, the floor and on the curtains. The result of
this was a better and stable view of his mother’s face, dress and chair.
Composition:
The painting represents the peak of Whistler’s radical method of modulating tones of
single colors. The paint looks soft, almost fuzzy—as if it were exhaled onto the surface.
There is some bravura brushwork, where Anna’s lace-cuffed hands clutch a
handkerchief, with unprimed canvas peeking through, and daubed hints of Japanese-
style floral patterning on a curtain that commands the left side of the picture. A few of
the daubs faintly echo the pink of Anna’s flesh. She wears a gold wedding ring: a spark
of harmony with the muted gilding of the frame that Whistler designed for the picture.
Practically subliminal whispers of reds and blues underlie areas of the silver-gray wall
behind her, and a dark purple smolder in the curtain, where the artist’s signature
emblem—a butterfly—hovers.
His linear emphasis is strongly used, here, as well as the negative space in the
composition. The portrait is used often in teaching art to show the use of shapes and
contrast in formal composition. The curves offset the squares, lines, and rectangular
shapes. The balance is, indeed, perfect. Note that the woman is placed far to the right.
The black curtain and large painting on the wall were placed to the left to balance the
woman on the right. This is an example of Informal Balance. The large form of the
woman is “visually equal” to the black curtain and white painting on the wall. This
makes the painting appear balanced, though the composition is more relaxed and less
stiff than if the woman had been placed in the exact center of the canvas.

Content Analysis

Identification and History of the Subject

On September 27, 1804, Anna McNeill Whistler was born in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Shortly after her birth, Anna McNeill moved with her family to New York.
In 1831, she married George Washington Whistler, a civil engineer and former army
officer,a widower who had three children. Anna gave birth to two sons, James McNeill
Whistler and William McNeill Whistler.
When James was nine, his art brought the attention of Scottish painter Sir William Allan.
Anna then enrolled James in the Imperial Academy of Arts at St. Petersburg. Her
husband died in 1849 from cholera.
Anna returned to the United States, to live in Connecticut. Her daughter remained in
England after marrying a surgeon. It was then the family lived in poverty but her
daughter helped William and James attend private school. In 1863, at the advice of her
stepdaughter and son, she moved to England, moving in with her son James in London
and in 1871, James Whistler painted her as the figure in “Whistler’s Mother.”

Relationship between iconography and shape

The painting represents the peak of Whistler’s almost Mondrian-esque method of
modulating monochromatic tones and geometric arrangements. Influence from
Velazquez, French realism and Japanese prints are clearly seen through his use of
brushwork, technique, form and play with spectatorship.
Despite the overarching angularity of the painting in its entirety, from its unusual title,
the unconventional seated pose and enigmatic stare, the figure remains dominant and
the painting, overall, functions as a portrait.
Regarded as a potent symbol of motherhood, the atmospheric work depicts Whistler’s
mother, Anna, sitting rigidly erect and in profile. Her black clothes insinuating that she is
in mourning with her lace-cuffed hands clutching a white handkerchief. Anna’s pursed
lips reveal her resigned and ultraconservative character, which over the years has
earned her the reputation of a miserable grump; a contrast to her vibrantly dressed,
socialite son.
It was also said that the colors and pose of Whistler’s mother was a symbolism of “a
grave sentiment of mourning”. This critique may have come from the dark colors that
the artist used to create the piece. And others view this amazing work of art as a perfect
symbolism of motherhood.
However, despite the dichotomy between the two, Whistler paints his mother with a
sense of fragility. The soft, gentle brushstrokes forming her elderly skin symbolises the
deep admiration Whistler felt for her.