Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1
1871 · Oil on canvas · Musée d'Orsay, Paris
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)
- Year
- 1871
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 144.3 × 162.4 cm
- Collection
- Musée d'Orsay, Paris
- Movement
- American
Anna McNeill Whistler, the artist's sixty-seven-year-old mother, sits in strict profile in a black dress and white lace cap, hands folded, against a grey wall hung with a framed print and a patterned curtain. Whistler painted it in London in 1871 after a model failed to appear; his mother stood for the pose at first and then sat because she tired. The title insists the picture is a study in tone and composition rather than a portrait, a position he defended in his art-for-art's-sake writings, but the public has always read it as an image of motherhood. The Royal Academy nearly rejected it in 1872. The French state bought it in 1891, making Whistler the first American painter in the national collection, and it is now in the Musée d'Orsay.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
Greys, blacks and one white cap make this a study in tone, so give it a calm wall and a black frame: a study, hallway or landing at 16×24 or 24×36. It suits pale grey or white walls above a dark wood console or bench.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a American painting
- Era
- 19th century (1871)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- intimate
- Rooms
- hallway or entryway, study or library, living room, dining room, dorm room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Whistler's Mother) in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Whistler's Mother) painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
