CNN.Com

DETROIT, Michigan (AP) -- James McNeill Whistler left the United States for Europe when he was 21 and never returned. His most famous painting doesn't make its way across the Atlantic all that often either, which is what makes its upcoming three-month stay in Detroit so unique. "Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1: Portrait of the Painter's Mother," better known as "Whistler's Mother," has only visited the United States a few times in the past half-century.

But now visitors can enjoy the 19th-century image at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Its home is the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.

"It's such an attraction. ... And it's such an icon, they really don't want it to go at all," Graham W.J. Beal, director of the DIA, said of his Parisian counterparts.

The DIA pulled off the coup by offering the Musee d'Orsay a rare Whistler of its own -- "Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket" -- in a swap of sorts.

The Art Gallery of Ontario asked the DIA if it would be willing to loan "The Falling Rocket" for an exhibition that also is scheduled to stop at the Tate Britain gallery in London and the Musee D'Orsay. Beal then suggested the exchange.

"Museums like ours don't usually horse trade in this fashion," he said.

"In this case, it really was a suggestion that I made, because this is a painting that we lend so rarely that explaining my reason for lending this to the board members ... would be much strengthened if I could say that we had 'Whistler's Mother' coming here."

Modern approach
The Detroit exhibition, entitled "American Attitude: Whistler and His Followers," focuses on Whistler's impact on a generation of other American artists.

The 63 pieces in the show include 12 other paintings by Whistler as well as works by John Singer Sargent, William Merritt Chase, Thomas Wilmer Dewing and Henry Ossawa Tanner.

Whistler's paintings are juxtaposed with those of the other artists, showing how Whistler's ideas about composition and color influenced his contemporaries and affected American art. His efforts often were criticized by European audiences, but American artists were inspired by his modern approach.

Unlike his contemporaries, Whistler was not interested in telling a story or in idealizing the subjects in his paintings. He considered subject matter less important than color and composition, and focused on creating a mood in his work.

He associated his paintings with the evocative nature of music by calling them "symphonies," "nocturnes" and "arrangements."

"Whistler's Mother" illustrates Whistler's technique of using tone-on-tone color, and shows how the subject was secondary to the composition. The painting depicts an old woman -- his mother, Anna McNeill Whistler -- seated in profile in a long black dress and white cap.

"It's an incredibly important painting. It's not only the pose. It's the composition," said James Tottis, acting curator of American art at the DIA. "When it was shown, the critics had a variety of mixed reviews. Many of them thought this was unflattering.

"Whistler, of course, said it was just an arrangement -- that the figure happened to be there. This is really central to the Whistlerian theme. He's all about art for art's sake and painting for aesthetics."

The exhibition comes to Detroit from the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, which displayed many of the works, except the original "Whistler's Mother." The show is on view through June 6 and will not travel. "Whistler's Mother" will return to Musee D'Orsay after the run.

top