From The Twisted End Of Art World Archives-Honor Whistler's Mother (Sonata In Grey And Beige)-Yeah, That Whistler’s Mother

From The Twisted End Of Art World Archives-Honor Whistler's Mother (Sonata In Grey And Beige)-Yeah, That Whistler’s Mother

By Laura Perkins

I have made no bones that I do not like the artist James McNeil Abbot Whistler, Jimmy to his friends, or maybe friend is better in 19^th century London where he fled in a nick of time before the New York City coppers put a very big dent in his head. If you don’t know Jimmy ‘s work or who he is then think Whistler’s Mother and that should tip you. I am mad at him for piecing off his mother like that, more later but what got me really pissed off was his The White Woman (sometimes called Sonata in White and White in the period when he was hitting the hookah too much and started to claim that everything was just table scrapes color ideas, maybe only the essence of colors at that) and the real reason he painted the piece that nobody knew about for years.        

The key to understanding this career felon really is figuring why he fled to London. That should have been the tip-off because unlike say Singer Sargent a fellow artist or the novelist Henry James who took exile in London voluntarily Jimmy was fleeing the states like a rat.  Just ahead of the coppers proving once again that except in rare cases people don’t leave their countries of origin unless they have run out of room, are on the run. Of course Jimmy’s various addictions, the opium being the least of it, added up and a guy who was broke, who smoked up his dreams needed some ready, some cash quick to stay afloat. So, not without some internal sources, Jimmy painted his ass off to complete The White Girl using his housekeeper, wink, wink in Victorian England, mistress as the model. He painted this beauty not though for selling the painting but to advertise her “wares.” Now this is subtle stuff in stuffy England but what Jimmy did was have a wolf’s head and fur painted beneath her feet. No big deal you would think and the art critics of the day never caught on. Caught on to the fact that he was pimping his mistress for filthy lucre. How? That wolf’s head (and critical fur) has been the calling card for whores since the time of the Whore of Babylon. Not pretty stuff but you can see why I hate this debased junkie with a passion.     

Now comes the “discovery” of an advanced sketch that Jimmy drew of his mother in preparation for her world- famous portrait. No, Jimmy didn’t try to pimp her off how could he have done that with some old hag but something worse in a way. He forced this poor arthritic woman to sit for hours, days at a times until he finished the damned thing. With major touch-ups he make her look human and well beloved. The real story though is in the recently discovered sketch where the misshapen old hag is reduced to the title grey and beige, the title that he had originally put on the final painting until Lord Grenwood cried bloody murder. I hope you too begin to hate degenerate Jimmy a little after this shocking expose.