arkwright Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 is a painting created by the American-born painter James McNeill Whistler in 1871 and now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. It is one of the most famous works by an American artist outside the United States. Better known under its colloquial name Whistler's Mother, it has been variously described as an American icon and a Victorian Mona Lisa. Anna McNeill Whistler posed for the painting while living in London with her son.Several unverifiable stories relate to the painting of the work. One of these has recently been confirmed by researchers in the department of Art History at the Sorbonne. As the story goes, Whistler’s mother considered the long hours of posing as wasted time, and as she had recently started to learn to play the concertina from her Irish housekeeper, she practiced while posing for the now-famous painting. Her son painted her with the concertina but later decided to paint out the concertina, because he wanted to enter it in the Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Art, and felt that the judges would prefer it without the concertina. Intrigued by the story, Marcel Lachenal (a distant relative of Louis Lachenal) had the painting x-rayed, and we are now able to see, after 140 years, the original Whistler's Mother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrian brown Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 What a fascinating story - and it looks like she's playing an anglo! Has this research been published by the Sorbonne yet?Adrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Ghent Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 My, what big hands you have... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_holden Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 Looks like she's playing a stomp box too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 What, if anything, is known about Lorraine Fletcher who is credited with having added the somewhat out of proportion hands, and the Anglo ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jody Kruskal Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 (edited) Brilliant! Notice how she seems to be playing Shepherd's Hey? Edited May 19, 2017 by Jody Kruskal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Harrison Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 (edited) Note how well he has captured the "concertina player's face".......so close to a drool. Edited May 19, 2017 by Robin Harrison Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Franch Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 An obvious forgery. She would have been playing an English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkwright Posted May 19, 2017 Author Share Posted May 19, 2017 What, if anything, is known about Lorraine Fletcher who is credited with having added the somewhat out of proportion hands, and the Anglo ? Ms. Fletcher is an Irish artist who graciously allowed me to (ab)use her painting for this project. Check out her web site: http://www.lorrainefletcherartstudio.com/ Any misproportioning of hands is the result of my own incompetence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 I apologise. There is of course no standard size for hands ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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