Whistler’s Mother: Grey, Black, and White

July 4–September 27, 2015

James McNeill Whistler

Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Portrait of the Artist's Mother) (detail)

Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Portrait of the Artist's Mother) (detail), 1871. Oil on canvas. Museé d'Orsay, Paris. Image © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Portrait of the Artist's Mother) (1871) by James McNeill Whistler is one of the most renowned works of art by an American artist. It is considered by many to be the most important American painting not on American soil. Better known as Whistler’s Mother, the painting has been owned by the French state since 1891 and is in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. This summer the Clark Art Institute presents the painting as the centerpiece of an exhibition featuring a variety of Whistler’s prints and drawings, Japanese woodblock prints that inspired the artist, and ephemera that explore the image’s role in popular culture. The Clark is one of only two American venues featuring the painting this year, and is the only east coast museum to show the iconic painting.

Whistler’s Mother: Grey, Black, and White is presented in collaboration with the Colby College Museum of Art and the Lunder Consortium for Whistler Studies. The exhibition is generously supported by a grant from The Lunder Foundation, by Katherine and Frank Martucci, and by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.