Whistler's Mother Quietly Returns to MFA, Boston
Sunday June 18, 2006
Masterpiece Part of Americans in Paris, 1860-1900 Show
by Stan Parchin
Sunday, June 18, 2006
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston successfully convinced Paris' Musée d'Orsay to loan it Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: Portrait of the Artist's Mother (1871) by American painter and etcher James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) for its version of Americans in Paris, 1860-1900. The exhibition will run in Boston from June 25 to September 24, 2006. It took three years of negotiations between the two museums to allow Whistler's Mother (as the painting is commonly called) to return to Boston for the special exhibition. The iconic oil portrait was last on display at the Massachusetts museum in 1983, where record crowds greeted it.
Americans in Paris... explores why American artists were lured to Paris, especially after the 1860s, what they found there and how they reacted to it, through the works of Whistler, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) and his former teacher, Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), among others. Highlights of the ticketed show include Sargent's Portrait of Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau) (1883-84) and Cassatt's famous paintings that used the mother and child theme. Coming fresh from London's National Gallery, the show travels next to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art from October 16, 2006 to January 28, 2007. While Whistler's Mother was part of the exhibition in London, it will not be on view when the show arrives in New York from Boston due to a previous commitment..
The painting was secretly transported to the MFA, Boston quietly last week. The work, valued at $30 million (US), will have its own security guard to protect it for the duration of its stay in Massachusetts.
Image credit:
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (American, 1834-1903)
Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1:
Portrait of the Artist's Mother, 1871
Oil on canvas
144.3 x 162.5 cm (56 3/4 x 64 in.)
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
An aside from your Guide: Anna Mathilda McNeill Whistler (1804-1881), the sitter in this painting, was well-traveled in reality. She was born in North Carolina to a Scottish immigrant father, followed her husband to Russia while he worked as an engineer, moved to Connecticut after his death in 1849, crossed the Mason-Dixon Line during the War Between the States to tend her Confederate surgeon son William's wounds, and later settled in London to be near her beloved, mercurial son Jamie. One supposes she'd be delighted to know "she" is continuing her trans-Atlantic journeys.
by Stan Parchin
Sunday, June 18, 2006
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston successfully convinced Paris' Musée d'Orsay to loan it Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: Portrait of the Artist's Mother (1871) by American painter and etcher James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) for its version of Americans in Paris, 1860-1900. The exhibition will run in Boston from June 25 to September 24, 2006. It took three years of negotiations between the two museums to allow Whistler's Mother (as the painting is commonly called) to return to Boston for the special exhibition. The iconic oil portrait was last on display at the Massachusetts museum in 1983, where record crowds greeted it.
Americans in Paris... explores why American artists were lured to Paris, especially after the 1860s, what they found there and how they reacted to it, through the works of Whistler, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) and his former teacher, Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), among others. Highlights of the ticketed show include Sargent's Portrait of Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau) (1883-84) and Cassatt's famous paintings that used the mother and child theme. Coming fresh from London's National Gallery, the show travels next to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art from October 16, 2006 to January 28, 2007. While Whistler's Mother was part of the exhibition in London, it will not be on view when the show arrives in New York from Boston due to a previous commitment..
The painting was secretly transported to the MFA, Boston quietly last week. The work, valued at $30 million (US), will have its own security guard to protect it for the duration of its stay in Massachusetts.
Image credit:
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (American, 1834-1903)
Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1:
Portrait of the Artist's Mother, 1871
Oil on canvas
144.3 x 162.5 cm (56 3/4 x 64 in.)
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
An aside from your Guide: Anna Mathilda McNeill Whistler (1804-1881), the sitter in this painting, was well-traveled in reality. She was born in North Carolina to a Scottish immigrant father, followed her husband to Russia while he worked as an engineer, moved to Connecticut after his death in 1849, crossed the Mason-Dixon Line during the War Between the States to tend her Confederate surgeon son William's wounds, and later settled in London to be near her beloved, mercurial son Jamie. One supposes she'd be delighted to know "she" is continuing her trans-Atlantic journeys.
Comments
How do you know these things before they get to print? Your knowledge is phenomenal.
All this drama for a painting.
But then – what a painting it is!
Simple, yet intriguing.
It was also nice to learn something
about the subject.
Yes. such a thorough report on the subject. I love the focus on the model as well..I’d like to see the exhibit at the MeT, but sadly couldnt make the break to go. I heavily respect the director of that musuem as well. Anyway, this article has been interesting reading. Is impressionism ur favorite period of art?
Dear Brittany,
The show will be at The Met this coming Fall and Winter. So you have plenty of time to go see it.
–Stan
I have a bed and breakfast in Louisville, Ky. and had an interesting experience relating thw Whistler not too long ago. A gentleman stayed with me (Steven Block), who owned 88 original whistler engravings & lithographs. He gave them all to the JB Speed Art Museum in Louisville. They are woderful, judging from the catalog. Do you have any of the engravings? I know the painting of his mother became very well known; but, I wondered about the lithographs. Are there asny at your museum? You can find the post about Mr Block and his lithographs on my blog: http://www.innNotes.blogspot.com.