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Show Tfie Stoapf a famous MOTHER f r vc - N s i t , VN x fe i X, x o o v fwv-s mr& - i - xx x V x xxx x x x M V x -XX , , X , s ll S , S n xx xxx X 0 V" ? - , i , iv, fssc 1 .N.V xx x r? x 3 H f XX X V- l! f xi. ' 1 1 X X x X XX'" , . ' " . X - V -x ' H JC -V" ,1"-V' , x' ' F " , ? ? X S - VSvx. v--Xj XJ- w, " 1 t " . N X v v v "' Xvl-xI-xVx"i' - t A x x x v xx x 4 - sV, - 4s x ' A - v?" , ' x x . x,s k - . - - , , s "Whistlei-b Painting of Hi& Mother .twat,o.a. p,, rllv By ELMO SCOTT WATSON classmate, William Gibbs McNeill, and married " ' ... . . , . her. In 1S33 he resigned from the army and the yW&SSs&A V fK NB f th grearI' Amencan Paint" next year to George Washington Whistler and WRl) jMWX fi A ers-PerhaPs gatest Ameri- Anna Mathilda McNelu Wnistler was born a son JzMW Wt f can pamter-once placed on can- to whom was given tue name James Abbott Mc. S7?VOT s I 1 4 I? 3 P f1' he. called Nelll Whl8tier, thus perpetuating the name of L. iTT ; Arrangement m Gray and Black." his uncle James Abbotti ag wel ag his paternal A IM It was the portrait of an old worn- and maternal families, the McNeills and the I'KVx an. ln a black gwn and white whistlers. Vi fef m wu lace cap, a woman ?,n the calm and ... . .. , .. . . CSW tW W W serene dignity of age, sitting at After Whistler's reslgnat.on from he army he Iff A 1 J Y ease with quiet hands, thinking and roseA elinencet as an e"gmeer and in 8i2 he JS&v lrfW V waiting. It was the portrait of the Rufia. ,frv'cef th car iWMiX ? ' painter's mother ln the construction of the railroad from St. Pe- 4lM Vi X This picture, known as "The Mother," would Tshn"g MSC0J' winning 5tr h'mflf WCfflpLA ' have assured its creator of immortality if he ar Nicholas the decoration of the Order of St. WtWM ? had never painted another. More than five mil- nTe-fTo RUSSm wlth went ,his7lfe anf WiMMm& fWS . . . . ., , , . , , . their two sons, one of them a slender, weak wfo0l'm W X hon reproductions of it have been printed and . , .. ' . -. , . . ..' :WmmWi: 1 . , . . ... lad, affectionately known to his mother . as yf$uWiW these prints have gone to every corner of the .,T . , . -, . . . . . , -yiXsi- nt.i. rr n ,v t ' Jamie. And "Jamie he was to her to the end -5&-" 5xV13sSK earth. Universally the woman m this picture . , , , , VMz- xiWSb- v5 tv, i t , -, i,r . of her days, even when he became a world- -gfr? 8SnS Jfcz is the embodiment of motherhood. Mrs. Anna . r ' , .. . r ...,, ,T ... ..... ., . famous painter. For the close tie between the sti eS? Mathilda McNeill Whistler, the mother of , , . . . ,. B' y T t,. ... . ' , . mother and the son who was to immortalize her v fl. James McNeill Whistler, has come to be the , , . ... . )-i,. i , j-,. i. i ii .-I on canvas began during this Russian experience, mother of mankind, the symbol of all mothers . ... , . . ... , , J . . She nursed him during those bitter years and everywhere whose memory we honor on May , .. , . . , . . inM tv, a when they were ended in the death of Major fi f k -Z A iu Mothers i cay Whistler and when the widow and her two sons (I 'l VVyC If XVr, But even though her picture has achieved im- were leaucei to pOTerty; she brought them out ,VA.UU Ji . jAAXxA' mortality, the mother herself is virtually un- , tTlo 1slnrt nf snwo hnpt t. .,, nvTth By ELMO SCOTT WATSON yB&y NB of the greatest American paint- ers perhaps THE greatest Ameri- f J :' can painter once placed on can- fi$ vas a portrait which he . called I igjj "Arrangement in Gray and Black." Li -.J It was the portrait of an old wom- to an, in a black gown and white vm vy lace cap' a woman the calm and Y W serene dignity of age, sitting at ease with quiet hands, thinking and Y waiting. It was the portrait of the 4 painter's mother. This picture, known as "The Mother," would have assured its creator of immortality if he had never painted another. More than five million mil-lion reproductions of it have been printed and these prints have gone to every corner of the earth. Universally the woman in this picture is the embodiment of motherhood. Mrs. Anna Mathilda McNeill Whistler, the mother of James McNeill Whistler, has come to be the mother of mankind, the symbol of all mothers everywhere whose memory we honor on May 10 Mother's day. But even though her picture has achieved immortality, im-mortality, the mother herself is virtually unknown. un-known. Nearly every one knows something about the erratic genius who was her son. But few know much of anything about the woman who gave him to the world. This, then, is the story of Anna Mathilda McNeill Whistler. It was in the year 1739 that a Scotch family named McNeill came to America from the isle of Skye. Long before the Revolution one of the line, Donald McNeill, built a great brick mansion man-sion on a plantation near the Cape Fear river in- North Carolina and there the McNeills took root. Most of them were planters and physicians, physi-cians, educated at Princeton and in Scotland. Anna Mathilda McNeill was the oldest of five children in her father's family. Her mother died when she was a young girl and she had maternal duties thrust upon her early when she became mistress of the ancient house of McNeill of Bladen and three younger sisters and one brother looked to her for care and guidance. This brother became Maj. William Gibbs McNeill Mc-Neill of the United States army a soldier in a family of planters and physicians and the last of his clan. While he was a cadet at the United States Military academy at West Point he brought home with him, while on leave, a classmate named George Washington Whistler. This classmate came of a family with an even more Interesting history than that of the McNeills. His grandfather was Capt. John Whistler, born ln Ireland of an old English family, who ran away from home and entered the British army. He came to America during the Revolution with the troops under Burgoyne and was captured fc by the Americans at Saratoga. Returning to England after the Revolution, he was discharged from the army, fell in love with the daughter of one of his father's friends, eloped with her and came a second time to America, settling at Hagerstown, Md. In 1791 he entered the American Amer-ican army, served on the frontier of the Old Northwest and at the outbreak of the War of 1812 was with General Hull's army at Detroit, which was captured by the British when Hull made his disgraceful surrender. So Whistler had the unique distinction of having once been a British officer captured by the Americans and then an American officer captured by the British. But Capt. John Whistler's greatest distinction distinc-tion lies in the fact that he was the real "father of Chicago," for it was he who built the first Fort Dearborn in 1803 and commanded the garrison gar-rison there until 1S10. His eldest daughter was., named Saraii Whistler and was married in 1S04 to James Abbott, a trader, thus becoming Chicago's Chi-cago's first bride. His youngest son, a youngster of only three years when Whistler came to build Fort Dearborn, was named George Washington Whistler and It was on the shores of Lake Michigan Mich-igan that he grew to sturdy boyhood. At the age of nineteen he was graduated from West Point, was assigned to the artillery corps and for several years was engaged in engineering engineer-ing and topographical work. Also he was married mar-ried and soon a widower, but early In the '30s he again met the motherly older sister of his classmate, William Gibbs McNeill, and married her. In 1S33 he resigned from the army and the next year to George Washington Whistler and Anna Mathilda McNeill Whistler was born a son to whom was given the name James Abbott McNeill Mc-Neill Whistler, thus perpetuating the name of his uncle, James Abbott, as well as his paternal and maternal families, the McNeills and the W7histlers. After Whistler's resignation from the army he rose to eminence as an engineer and in 1842 he went to Russia to enter the service of the czar in the construction of the railroad from St. Petersburg Pe-tersburg to Moscow, winning for himself from Czar Nicholas the decoration of the Order of St. Anne. To Russia with him went his wife and their two sons, one of them a slender, weak lad, affectionately 'known to his mother as "Jamie." And "Jamie" he was to her to the end of her days, even when he became a world-famous world-famous painter. For 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 when they were ended in the death of Major Whistler and when the widow and her two sons were reduced to poverty, she brought them out of the land of snows back to her sunny North Carolina. When "Jamie" grew up he decided to follow the profession of his father and become a soldier. He secured an appointment to West Point in 1S52, but 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 Paris where he studied for two years and then proceeded to startle the international world of art by breaking away from tradition, by belonging be-longing to no school but his own and by being an experimentalist and an eclectic. Next he went to London and in 1859 began to exhibit In the Royal academy. He achieved fame as an etcher and a lithographer, perhaps even greater than as a worker in oils. In fact, during his lifetime he was more noted as a writer, a caustic wit and a persuasive critic than as a painter. His greatest great-est fame as the latter came after his death. During these years he was rising to fame his mother was in Europe, also, not with him always, al-ways, but nearby in case he should have need of her. For somehow her little "Jamie" never seemed to grow up enough to be without his mother. In I860 Whistler left London for three years more of study in Paris and his mother returned re-turned to America for a last visit with her relatives rela-tives in North Carolina. For Whistler had decided de-cided never to return to his native land to live. So his mother was going to wind up what few affairs she had there and then return to London, where they would live oh the 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 became more and more difficult as the Union blockade of the Confederate ports tightened. Finally early In 1SG4 came word from her son that he had returned to London and established himself him-self there. So she announced her intention of joining him. Her relatives tried to deter her. It would be impossible for her to go now, they told her. Her only reply was the calm statement state-ment that her "Jamie" needed her with him and that she was going. Somehow she arranged it to take passage on the Confederate blockade runner, the Advance, which was preparing to leave Wilmington, N. C, taking 2,000 bales of cotton to the cotton mills in England if the Advance could get through the blockade. Another passenger on the same ship was William Laurie Hill, going on a mission mis-sion from the Confederate government to London. Lon-don. He knew that he was taking a long chance of gelling through alive, but the urgency of his mission permitted no delay. The Advance stole out of the harbor one night under the cover of darkness. Outside was a massed fleet of 150 Union vessels, concentrated concen-trated against the last surviving port of the Confederacy, which was guarded by Fort Fisher. Fish-er. All might have been well had not the guns of Fort Fisher opened up on a Federal gunboat which had ventured within range of the fort's guns. The flush of these guns revealed the sails of the bio ksde runner to the Federals. Immediately the entire Union fleet opened up on the fugitive ship. As for the conduct of this heroic mother during dur-ing 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 Advance's crew had this to say: "While the Yankees were chasing chas-ing us, she didn't do nothin' but stand at the port and look at 'em. She sort of smiled when one shell landed in the riggin' and said that she knew nothin' was goin' to harm us and we were goin' to get through all right. That Mister Hill, he was sort of fidgety, but she wasn't." And get through they did, for by some miracle the Advance made her escape and arrived safely in England. "It was in this fashion that Mrs. Anna Mathilda Ma-thilda McNeill Whistler, at once the most celebrated cele-brated and the most obscure woman of American Amer-ican birth, took leave of her native shores for the last time," writes Ben Dixon McNeill In the New York Herald Tribune Magazine. "Her last glimpse of the mouth of Cape Fear river, beside be-side which she was born, was lighted by the glare of the Federal fleet In 18G4 when, serenely, she ran the gamut of death through the blockade block-ade to a curious sort of anonymous immortality. "It is a curious sort of immortality to which this mother went through the concentrated fury of 150 ships of war. She was not in search of any sort of fame, any sort of Immortality. It was simply that beyond the ring of ships and death was her boy Jamie, who needed her." The immortality which was to come to her was to come not through this 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 in keeping, perhaps, with the stormy career of the man who painted It. It was refused at the Royal academy in 1S72, failed of a purchaser at an absurdly low price when exhibited ln America, but finally was awarded a gold medal in the salon of 1884 and was purchased by the French government for the Luxembourg gallery in 1891. The art world assumed that it was destined for the highest art honor in the world, that of being hung in the Louvre, and when Whistler died In 1903 he was happy ln the belief that his memorial to the mother who had been the greatest force In his life was to be the first example of American art to pass the portals of the great national museum on the banks of the Seine. Fortunately he could not know how long it was to be before that honor should come to his painting and to the mother whom he had Immortalized. For it was not until 192G, after many rulings by the French connoisseurs and the French government that his painting was "not yet ready for the Louvre," that the ultimate honor came to it. Perhaps, though, this honor is but insignificant In comparison com-parison to the greater honor accorded it by those who are not art connoisseurs the common com-mon people all over the world who look upon it as Uie perpetual symbol of universal mother' bocd. ( by Western Newspaper UdIojl) |