# The Artist's Mother [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [WHISTLER, James Abbot McNeill]() - Date: 1851-1900 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 144 x 163 cm ## Commentary Whistler painted this famous picture in the summer of 1871 in London. It represents the 67-year-old Anna Mathilda Whistler, the artist's mother. She is shown in profile, seated on a chair, incorporated formally within a rigid system of verticals and horizontals provided by the floorboards, curtain, chair-back, footstool, and pictures on the wall. The woman, dressed in black and wearing a white bonnet, stands out clearly against the gray wall; form and colour thereby subordinate to the overall design of the picture This portrait stands at the beginning of Whistler's successful career as a portrait painter, and already contains all the characteristics of his subsequent works. ## Related artworks - [La Piazzetta]() - [Lady in Grey]() - [Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket]() - [Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge]() - [Nocturne: The Thames at Battersea]() - [Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain]() - [The Artist in His Studio]() - [The Artist's Mother \(detail\)]() - [The Balcony, Variations in Flesh Colour and Green]() - [The Little White Girl: Symphony in White, No. 2]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()