Show atie ll 11 alt sto stort of of a amous camou M 0 til T 1 J M 3 ARA M V a Y p lip a W W 4 17 Y 1 Z aa A Y V TF 2 4 V av wi ak IN ax R 01 arg Q q gg b pointing painting by ELMO SCOTT WATSON NE of the greatest american paint ere era perhaps TUB TIIU greatest american ronce placed on car can as a portrait lie he called arrangement in gray cray and black it was the portrait of arf old wom on an in a mack black gown and white lace cap a woman in the calm and serene dignity of age sitting tit lit ease with quiet hands thinking and L waiting wat ting it was waa the portrait ot of the 4 painters mother i this picture know known nIB las tile tho ll mother otier would have bay 0 assured its creator creator of imm immortality if he bad never pointed painted another more 0 than five million reproductions have been printed and these prints tiara hare gone to every corner ot of tho earth universally the ho woman in this hla picture Is the embodiment 0 of motherhood mrs anna mn mathilda thilda mcneill Whist whister cr the moar mother of james menvill whistler has come coma to bo be the mother of 0 mankind the symbol of 0 nil alii mothers everywhere whose memory we honor on may alay 30 10 mothers day I 1 but even though her picture hash has achieved im mortality tho the mother herself la Is virtually unknown nearly every one knows something about the erratic genius who was her soh eon hut but few know much of an anything ailing about the woman who gave him to tile the world this then is the tory story of anna mathilda mcneill whistler it was in the year 1730 that a scotch family mcneill came caine to america from the islo isle of skye long before the revolution one of the line donald mcneill built a great brick man slon acton on a plan plantation tatton near the cape fear river in north carolina and thero there the Mc Nellla NeIlla took root most of them were planters and physicians educated at princeton and in scotland anna mathilda mcneill was the oldest of five children in her fa fathers tiers family faintly nor iter mother died when the she was waa a young girt girl and she alle had maternal duties thrust upon her early when the she became mistress of the ancient house of mcneill of and three younger elfi and one brother looked to her for care and guidance TM this brother became maj william gibbs me mc belll of the tha united states army a soldier in a family of lot planters and physicians and the last of hla his clan white while he wits was ft A cadet at the united states military academy at west point ho be brought honie home with him while on leave a classmate named hamid george washington whistler this classmate came ot of a family with nn an even more interesting history than that of tile tho McNell ls hit grandfather was capt john whistler born bom in ireland of an old english family who ran away from home and entered the british army he caret came to america during the ohp revolution with the troops under burgoyne and was captured by the americans americana at saratoga returning to after the revolution h was discharged from the army fellin fell in love with tho the daughter of one of tits fathers friends doped with her and camo came a second time to america settling at Magers town md in 1701 1791 he be entered the amerlean american ame r army served seivel on an the tha frontier of the old northwest and at the outbreak of the tha war of 2812 was with general bulls army ut at detroit which was wait captured by the british when hull dull made his disgraceful surrender ur render so whistler had bad the unique distinction of having once been a british officer captured by am americana alcana anil then an american officer captured by the british BrIt but capt john whistlers greatest distine tion lies iles in the fact that he was tho the real father of chicago for it was he be who built the first rort fort dearborn in 1803 and commanded the garrison there until 1810 ills IHs eldest daughter was named sarah WhIst whistler Ivr and was darrld in 1804 to james jamea abbott n trader thus becoming cht chi cagos first bride ills youngest son a youngster of only three years tears when whistler came to build fort Dearborn was named ceorge washington Vas hIngton whistler and it was on the shores of lake michigan that he be grew to sturdy boyhood w at the aga age of nineteen lie he was graduated from west point was assigned to tho artille artillery rii corps and for several years was edgag engaged dd in engineer ing ng and topographical work also lie he was waa married and soona Avi widower dower but early in n ahe the theaoa SOS SOa li bt again act abo motherly older sister of hla his of his HIG mother n classmate william gibbs mcneill Mc Nelll and married her la ili 1833 ho he resigned from the army and the next year to george washington whistler and anna mathilda mcneill whistler was born a sort son to whom was given the name james abbott me mc nelu neill whistler thus perpetuating the name of 0 his uncle james abbott as well ns its his paternal and maternal families the McNell Me Nellis ls and the alil whistlers alers after whist whistlers ices resignation the army he rose to eminence as an engineer and in 1842 he went to allus aln to to enter file service ot of the czar in tho the construction of the railroad from st petersburg burg to moscow pinning ifor himself from czar nicholas tile tho decor decoration atlon ot of the order Orde of st anne to with him went its ills wife and their two sons ozie one ot of them a slender weak lad affectionately known to tila mother us ns le and jamie Jn rale lie he was to her to the end of her days even when lie became a world famous painter cpr the close tie between the mother and the son who was to immortalize her on canvas began during this russian experience she nursed him during those bitter years and eiten they WOK were ended in tile the death of major whitler and when the widow and her two sons were reduced to poverty she brought them out of the land ot of snows back to her sunny north carolina when jamie grew up lie he decided to follow the profession slon oi of tits his father and become it a soldier ile he secured nu nit appointment to west point in 1832 but tits his career there was a short one in fact it lasted only two years after leaving west point whistler resolved to go in for a career as a painter so he went to parts paris where lie studied for or two years and then proceeded to startle the international world ot of art by breaking away from tradition by belonging to no school but his own and by being au an experimentalist and an eclectic next lie he went to london and in 1850 1859 began to exhibit in the royal academy lie ile achieved fame as an etcher and it lithographer perhaps aven een greater than as a worker tn in allik oils in fact during his lifetime he was more noted its as a writer a caustic wit and a persuasive critic than as a painter ills his greatest fame na as the latter cams came after his death during daring these there years eara tie lie was rising to fame his mother was waa in europe also not no with him always but nearby in case ile he should have need of 0 her for somehow her little jablo never seemed to grow up enough to be without his mother in 1860 whistler left london tor for three years more ot of study in parts paris and hla his mother returned to america for it a last visit with her relatives in north carolinn carolina for whistler had decided never to return to tits lila native land to live so tits hla mother was going to wind up what few affairs she ehe had bad there and then return to london where they would llvy alv on Ilie lie scant means which the son could provide while she was visiting in cumberland and bladen counties in north carolina the storm of the civil war broke communication with her son eon became more and more difficult as the union blockade of the confederate ports porta tightened finally early in 1804 came calud word from her son that lie he had returned to london and established himself there so title announced her Inte intention nUon of joining him iler her relatives tried to deter her it would bo be impossible for her to go now they told her tier only reply was the calm statement that per her jamie needed her with him and that she was going somehow she arranged it to take passage ou on the confederate blockade runner the advance which was preparing to leave wilmington N C Q taking 2000 bales of cotton to the cotton mills IQ in englund england if ft the advance could get through tile tho blockade another passenger on the same ship was william baurle going on a mission sion from the confederate government to lon loa don lie ile know knew that he be was taking a long chance of 0 getti getting tig through alive but the urgency of 0 his mission permitted n nv delay the advance stole state out of the harbor one night under the cover of darkness outside was a massed fleet of union vessels concentrated against the last surviving port of the confederacy which was guarded by fort fisher croall all might havo have been well weli had not the guns of fort fisher opened up on a federal gunboat had ventured within range of bf the forts guns the flash of those these guns revealed the bau of the blockade runner tw to the federals 0 VU immediately the entire union anlon fleet opened up on the he fugitive ship As for the of this heroic mother during the time when at any moment a shell might have blasted out her life or sent her to a watery grave a member of the advances crew had this akis to say eay while the yankees were chasing us she do hut but stand at the port pert and look at ena em she sort of smiled limited when one shell landed in iii the and said that she abe knew bothin not liln was coln to harm us and we were gogul to get through all right that mister hill he was sort of fidgety but she and get through they did for hy by somo some miracle the advance made her escape and arrived safely tn in england it was in this fas fashion filon that mrs anna ala I 1 thilda mcneill whistler at once the most celebrated and the most obscure woman of amerlean american birth took leave kave of her native shores tor for the last time writes den ben dixon I 1 mcneill tit in the now new york herald tribune magazine ifer her la last s t glimpse of the mouth of cape rear fear river b beside bebide e which she was born was lighted by the glare of the federal fleet in 1804 when serenely she ran the gamut of death through the blo blockade k to a curious sort of anonymous Immor immortality talley it Is a curious sort of immortality to which this mother went through the concentrated fury of t ships of war site she was not tn in search of I 1 any sort of fame any sort of immortality it was waa simply that beyond the ring of ships and death was her boy jamte jamie who needed her the immortality which WAS to come to her ber was to corae come not through tills this font feat but through the work of her artist son in the form of a portrait of her and even this painting had an unusual career tit hi keeping perhaps with the stormy career of the man who painted it it was refused tit at the royal academy in 1872 failed of a purchaser at an absurdly low price when exhibited in Ameri america cn but finally was waa awarded a gold medal in the bajon jon of 1884 and was purchased by the french government for the ille luxembourg gallery in 1891 the art world assumed that it was destined tor for the highest art honor in the world that of being hung in the louvre anti and when whistler died in 1003 1903 he helas was happy in the belief that his memorial to the mother who had bad been the greatest force in his bis life was to be the first example of american art to pass the portals of the great national museum on the banks bank 9 of the seine fortunately he be could not know how long it was to be before that ho honor n 0 r should come to his painting and to the ehe mother whom he had immortalized for it was not until 1020 1021 after many rulings by the french connoisseurs aad the french government that his painting was not yet wady mady for the louvre that the ultimate honor came to it IL perhaps though this honor Is but insignificant in com carlson par lson to the greater honor accorded it by those who are not art connoisseurs the he common people all allover over the world who look upon lt it a the perpetual symbol of universal hood bol 0 by castern Newal por unton union |