The Private Life of a Masterpiece
James McNeill Whistler: Portrait of the Painter's Mother
S4 • E5 May 22, 2004
Whistler's portrait of his elderly Puritan mother is one of the most satirised paintings of all time. Yet when his sombre masterpiece was first unveiled, it was seen as a radical departure from the sentimental images beloved of the Victorians, and which Whistler loathed. How did the portrait, born of Whistler's complex relationship with his mother, change the course of painting so drastically?
