Lecture: James McNeill Whistler and His Mother

Daniel Sutherland, Distinguished Professor of History, University of Arkansas
May 2, 2015

James McNeill Whistler created over 2,700 paintings, drawings, etchings and lithographs, besides writing several pamphlets about the roles of art and the artist in society. He may legitimately be hailed as the most complete of all American artists. Yet, Whistler is most often remembered for a single painting, a portrait of his mother, Anna. Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, or "Whistler’s Mother," as it is universally known, marked a turning point in his thinking about art and helped, no less than the woman herself, to shape the course of his life.

Presented in conjunction with Tête-à-tête: Three Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay.