Jacqueline Mahaboob

Analyzing an Artwork

Of all of the many different forms of art I have always had a special interest in one specific piece of visual art called Whistler’s Mother by James McNeill Whistler. This piece of artwork has always intrigued me because of the mysteriousness of its’ content. When looking at this oil painting it is hard to decipher what the woman staring off into the distance is thinking about or feeling. Her mood could be either content or depressed from the shape of the lines that form her mouth and lines around her eyes. The form of this painting is dim and the texture of it almost appears somewhat rough from the texture in the wall and ground. The texture and fine line detailing contribute to this painting by adding such small but significant detail which helps to make it a trompe l’oeil. By painting this picture I believe Whistler may have been trying to capture a frequent position of his mother to use as something to remember her by when she is gone. By capturing her in this figurative art piece looking so gentle just sitting in a chair in such a casual state with her hands crossed politely in her lap could be Whistler trying to portray his mother as a quiet and tender older woman who enjoyed times of calm and stillness. The aesthetics of this painting is up to the viewer like Whistler adding the white bonnet on his mother’s head to show the pureness and beauty of her inside and out. The time it looks like Whistler put in creating this picture of his mother shows how much he must care about her and the fact that she sat long enough as a model for him to paint shows that she also cares a lot for him and is willing to be however patient it takes to please her son. Painting his mother all alone could be him trying to show that she was a single mother that raised him or it could just be him trying to represent how unique of a person that she was and no one could be compared to her. This painting was done in 1871 when men were often the more dominant and boys looked up to their fathers as a role model of a real man, so for Whistler to solely paint her could be him showing that he doesn’t care about the norm of their century and overtime those standards have changed and women are valued much more so a picture like this is also modern in a way. Also by isolating his mother to paint a picture of just her shows the significance she must have had in his life that no one else had to dedicate a picture to her all alone. The medium of this artwork is canvas and oil paint; it is possible that he used oil painting specifically so that he could show how dark and bold the emotions in her long life had been, while still being able to use texture and fine detailing to show that she is more complex than it may seem on the exterior. The curtain in the picture shows a pattern that looks like flowers on the bottom and petals blowing upward in a gust of wind, this could be Whistler trying to represent the wisdom that she has over the years passed down and it blowing onto the next person. I think gender adds an interesting component to this when you think about young girls always being close with their mothers and able to relate to them and fathers wanting a son to do manly things with, this painting changes that by showing a son caring not just about his mother but the little details about her. It is possible that he painted this once he was older because as a child him and his mother’s relationship was strained due to childish behavior and over his life he grew to

Jacqueline Mahaboob

appreciate her greatly. This piece of artwork can be viewed as a beautiful tribute to Whistler’s mother to show her complexity yet simplicity.

Another type of art I enjoy greatly is theater. Theater allows so much self-expression and the ability to be something you are not. Scripts all the time are written for many different reasons such as someone trying to relay a message or moral, as a tribute to someone and as a way to express ones feelings. Just like Whistler’s piece of art could have been in memory of his mother some plays are written in memory of loved ones. The way plays are written do depend greatly on circumstances such as age to determine the maturity or socio- economic status, gender and race to add personal input and experiences. The writing style of the script could be altered by a female writing it rather than a male because of certain words they may chose and emotions they chose to express, for example, a male writer may use more masculine words and a woman may add in more feminine qualities like maternal nurturing. Another factor that alters a script is when the script was initially written, a play written centuries ago may involve events or words that are not a part of our modern time. These plays can be written by one person or a group of people who shared a mutual experience and have different views on the topic. Theater is a more pure way of presenting feelings and emotion because it is all live and there is no editing or filters used like this is in film. Just like Whistler’s painting of his mother could have been him trying to promote the importance and value of a mother the same could be done though a play about a mother’s significance. Although these forms of art are visually different they are also a lot the same with qualities and concepts and can easily be compared.

Whistler’s Mother- James McNeill Whistler