Whistler's Mother

An elderly woman sits in strict profile against a bare grey wall, hands folded in her lap, dressed in austere black with a white lace cap, a framed print and a curtain the only other notes. Whistler titled it Arrangement in Grey and Black, insisting it was a study in tones and composition rather than sentiment - yet the sitter was his own mother, and the picture became a universal emblem of motherhood and quiet dignity. Now in the Musee d'Orsay, Whistler's Mother is among the most famous of all American paintings, severe and tender at once.