23 been edited and published by Margaret F. MacDonald (“Whistler’s Mother’s Cook Book”). Thus, as we turn briefly to reflect upon the painting of Anna McNeill Whistler, we can also contemplate making her spongerusk for afternoon tea. “Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1,” also know as “Portrait of the Painter’s Mother,” took three months to paint, and required countless sittings of Anna Whistler. When she was too tired to pose, someone would pose in her stead. Whistler was doing this work for himself. Anna’s letters clearly indicate he cared deeply about the work. Yet, the work was badly received by critics when it was first exhibited. Critics said such things as, “‘Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother’ is another one of Mr. Whistler’s experiments,” and “The arrangement is stiff and ugly enough to repel many.” The public did not understand Whistler’s credo of art for art’s sake. His commitment was to the aesthetic arrangement of color, space, form and line — the formal elements that lie at the heart of his style. This does not mean he did not also see the work as a portrait or that he was trying to hide the subject matter. It is more that the presentation of his mother seated in profile was a part of an artistic arrangement, and not primarily a sentimental portrait of an elderly woman. But, James McNeill Whistler was always a contradiction in terms. On at least one occasion he told an artist friend “. . . one does like to make one’s mummy just as nice as possible.” Whistler was delighted when, 20 years later, in 1891, the painting was the first of his works to be acquired by a public collection — the Musée du Luxembourg. After Whistler’s death, the work was given to the Louvre. It hangs today in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Kemille Moore, PhD, is Associate Professor of Art and Art History at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. James Whistler, self-portrait, circa 1872. www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM COURTESY OF JIMMY JORDAN, WILMINGTON PHILATELIC SOCIETY Above: The First Day of Issue for the “Mother’s Day Stamp” was May 2, 1934, in Washington, DC. The stamp was sold only in Washington on the first day and was released nationwide the next day. Right: A cover sent on May 12, 1934, to Claude Howell, an artist who was born in Wilmington in 1915. He spent his early summers in Maine and New York studying painting with other noted artists but always called Wilmington his home. COURTESY OF RICHARD PORCELLI, WILMINGTON PHILATELIC SOCIETY
Wrightsville Beach Magazine May 2014
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