Anna McNeill Whistler
While Whistler’s Mother has continued to captivate the imagination of viewers through the centuries, the name and story of Whistler’s real mother has been wrongfully overlooked.
Who was Whistler’s mother? And how would she have liked to be remembered?
Listen to ArtMuse’s episode on Anna McNeill Whistler, not only the mother of James McNeill Whistler, but also his artistic manager and agent. One may judge by her portrait that Anna was a stern and restrained woman who lived a simple life, but doing so would be a great injustice, for Anna was a far from ordinary woman who lived a far from simple life.
She was Whistler’s mother, but she was also so much more.
This episode is produced by Kula Production Company.
Listen to ArtMuse’s episode on Anna McNeill Whistler
REFERENCES
Sutherland, Daniel E., and Georgia Toutziari. Whistler’s Mother: Portrait of an Extraordinary Life. Yale University Press, 2018.
Walden, Sarah. Whistler and His Mother: Secrets of an American Masterpiece: An Unexpected Relationship. Gibson Square, 2004.
FURTHER REFERENCES
Mumford, Elizabeth. Whistler’s Mother; the Life of Anna McNeill Whistler. Plutarch Press, 1971.
IMAGES
James McNeill Whistler, Portrait of the Artist’s Mother, oil on canvas, 1871.
Artist Unknown, Mrs. Charles Donald McNeil (Martha Kingsley), watercolor on ivory, 1800-1803.
View of Wilmington, NC in 1865.
Historic Marker in Wilmington, NC honoring Anna McNeill.
Francis Guy, Winter Scene in Brooklyn, oil on canvas, 1819-20. This shows the intersection of Front Street and Fulton Street in the modern-day neighborhood of Dumbo.
George Washington Whistler, 1820’s, from the Pennell Collection in DC.
The Whistler House in Lowell, MA. This is the house that James McNeill Whistler was born in. Currently located at 243 Worhhen Street. Now the Whistler House Museum of Art.
Historic photo of St. Petersburg from the 19th Century.
Watercolor by Thomas Wright, made in 1845 when Anna lived in Russia.
Martha Kingsley McNeill in 1834.
James Whistler as a young man.
William Whistler as a young man.
101 Cheyne Walk, where James and Anna lived together and James painted Anna’s portrait.
Anna McNeill Whistler in her elder age.
Anna McNeil Whistler when in Germany 1864-1865.
Roosevelt’s mother posing in front of Anna’s portrait in New York in 1933.
