DETROIT, May 7 (UPI) -- One of the most famous American mothers won't be at home on Mother's Day -- the painting "Whistler's Mother" is in Detroit on tour.
The painting by James McNeill Whistler will not be hanging in its usual place at the D'Orsay Museum in Paris on Sunday but will be the center of attention of Mother's Day visitors to the Detroit Institute of Arts. It is on loan there through June 6 as part of an exhibition titled "American Attitude: Whistler and His Followers."
Whistler painted the portrait of his matronly mother seated in a straight-backed chair in 1872 and titled it "Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: The Artist's Mother." It is one of the finest examples of Whistler's use of carefully arranged simple forms and muted colors, reflecting his admiration for the 17th century Spanish painter Diego Velazquez.
Whistler was American-born, of Scottish-Irish descent through his mother, but settled permanently in London in 1863. "Whistler's Mother" is his best-known painting and is considered as revelatory of the American character as Grant Wood's "American Gothic."
