James Whistler "Arrangement in grey and black. The artist's mother"

First picture of the Mother of Whistler I saw... or Rather to say, of course, about the existence of this painting, I learned from the movie "Mr. Bean" Rowan Atkinson.

We are talking about feature film production in 1997, and not about the eponymous TV series of 14 episodes (1990 and 1995). Thus, the plot of the film pattern James McNeill Whistler purchased from the French Museum France, one rich and the gifted Los Angeles-based art gallery.

The caretaker of the Royal British Gallery Mr. Bean accidentally, but desperately messed up head of his mother. Over the circumstances of this horror still laughed and still laugh hundreds of millions of people around the world. I'm worried no less than the hapless Mr bean.

Trying to restore the image, the hero Atkinson has shown excessive creativity.

Comedy adventure picture the Mother of James Whistler, too, because part of the history of this work. The work of Whistler is indeed in France, in the city of Paris in the Musee d'orsay. James Whistler was an American artist, but his best creative years he spent in Europe and his painting, written in 1871, was first presented at the exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, the most prestigious in the UK... James McNeill Whistler, like many other predecessors of impressionism, had a strained relationship with criticism. For example, "Arrangement in grey and black. The artist's mother" was the last picture by Whistler, which has agreed to host the exhibition of the Royal Academy. But this is nonsense. Most interesting is that one of his implacable critics was the art critic John Ruskin (Ruskin). A very entertaining personality with the appearance of Leo Tolstoy (and, as it turned out, which Russian writer a certain intellectual influence), the reskin was a fighter with the academic and Iconoclast "immutable" values of classical painting.

Why would he want to attack the nascent impressionism? Alien soul darkness. But art discussion in English specifics got quite English development — James Whistler sued John Ruskin for insulting the feelings and dignity. It was in connection with the criticism of Whistler's paintings, written in 1875 called "Nocturne: the Falling lights." It should be noted that the picture of Whistler's Mother wrote a long time during the 70 sessions. It is the most famous painting by English artist. In it, he reflected his understanding of color. Whistler his paintings like musical compositions, it is obvious that even by their names, and in these works color harmony for it was in the first place. Say that in place of the mother could be another model that the mother is the second question, but most importantly, gray was playing with black. Color modulation was painting James McNeill Whistler.