Artwork

 

Hayter for February 4, 2024

“Whistler’s Mom Deserved Better” 

          Have you ever taken one of those employment profiles that determine what kind of job you’re good for? If so, did you abide by the findings? Me? I was so pleased with what I’d be qualified to do that I can’t remember what it was.

          When I returned to the counselor who administered the test, the first thing out of her mouth was “Mr. Hayter, you have no desire to be a salesman, do you?”   I interpreted that to mean whatever I had no interest in far exceeded what I was interested in. You can read a lot from test results.

          I wish I had noticed how much interest I had in art. While I now wish I were a painter, when I was in grade school all of my teachers steered me away from anything that required artistic ability. When my first-grade teacher told us to draw a picture of a man, I was the only one in class who drew a figure with a square head and body. You may notice that I am still not over that.

          Over the course of history, there have been millions of great artists. Hitler was among them. I’ve read about Hitler wanting to be an artist but never being considered as one.

However, after viewing some of his artwork, I discovered that Hitler had a real talent for art, to the point where had his work been better recognized, he might’ve been accepted as an artist, thus allowing a much wiser dictator to have won over Europe during WWII.

While I am no judge of art, I do know what I like. I’m the same with food, but I’m still talking art, here. I like a fourth of what Van Gogh painted, none of Picasso work, and much of N.C. Wythe’s paintings. In other words, I don’t enjoy looking at a painting that makes me ask the question “What the heck does that mean?”

That says more about me than the painter. There was not an artist from the past who would have had cause to be upset over my criticism of their work. I say that now, because of a particular artist I read about last month. The artist is most noted for “Arrangement in Gray and Black #1 Mother Room Profile”. That was the original title for “Whistler’s Mother”.

You may not know or care, but Anna McNeil was not the first to model for her son’s painting. James Abbot McNeil Whistler’s original choice to model was 15-year-old Margie Graham. Turns out, that Margie’s father paid Whistler to paint a picture of his lovely daughter. However, the girl did not enjoy sitting still for any duration and eventually quit showing up to pose. That ticked James off big time, so he yelled, “Hey, Ma! Can I see you for a minute?”

          Without question, a painting of the young lady would’ve been much more pleasing to many… I’m guessing. I imagine Whistler would have used different colors to better portray the young lady and her surroundings.  

But, after losing his original model, Whistler had his mother put on a full-length dark grey dress, stick a dull-white bonnet on her head, and sew some white lace to her sleeves. He intended for her to stand like a statue in her house for the duration of the painting.

She tried to do that for two days, but her son was much too demanding. When you’re an aged mother, it’s difficult to stand still for hours, wearing a floor-to-neck dress without moving. Mrs. Whistler nearly collapsed from both physical and mental pain while posing. Disappointingly, her son agreed that he could likely paint her as she was sitting. Bless his heart.

After about three months, walla! He had a wonderfully detailed a gray and black painting of an old lady with no expression on her face staring across a room.

The drab piece of artwork was completed in 1871 and purchased in 1891 by a Frenchman who took it to Europe. During the Great Depression, the painting returned to the U.S. for a 13-month tour. I can think of few better paintings to display during the Great Depression than Whistler’s Mother. In one week, the painting drew one million viewers in Chicago.

Without question “Whistler’s Mother” was well done. The detail was unbelievable, as it would have been had James Whistler painted a chunk of charcoal that he dropped on the floor. In either, for me, it would still beg the question – WHY?

“Arrangement in Black and Gray yadda, yadda…” is by no means the most unimpressive piece of artwork I’ve ever seen. It’s just that a man as talented as Whistler could’ve painted his mom over a sink wearing a colorful plaid blouse and green skirt, looking at flowers through a window pane. I realize stuff like that has been done and done, but Whistler’s mom is just sitting there expressionless looking at nothing. Yet she attracted a million viewers in one week!

There is a lot of art that touches the mind of a desperate beholder. There have apparently been millions of such followers who have eyes for colorless art. The only name one might associate with such a painting is “Emotionless Woman Sitting” or Whistler’s Mother”.

Art is the message that too often takes more thought than most care to lend. That is only one of the reasons I wish I were talented in art. That, and I would like to make up for Whistler’s poor mother.

         

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