La Mère Gérard 1858

James Abbott McNeill Whistler made this drypoint etching, La Mère Gérard, depicting a standing elderly woman. Whistler was an American expatriate, working in Europe and deeply embedded in the art world of Paris and London. But although he made his name painting society portraits, this image depicts a working-class subject. In France at this time, the institutions of art were in flux, and the Académie des Beaux-Arts was under pressure to open up to new kinds of artists and subjects. How was Whistler positioning himself within these debates? Was he making a statement about whose lives were worthy of representation? Or was he, perhaps, more interested in the aesthetic qualities of the composition? As art historians, we try to answer these questions by consulting a wide range of sources to discover the social and institutional context in which artists like Whistler were working.