Anna Matilda (née McNeill) Whistler (September 27, 1804 – January 3, 1881) was the mother of American-born, British-based painter, James McNeill Whistler, who made her the subject of his famous painting "Arrangement in Grey & Black No.1", often titled, Whistler's Mother.[1]
Anna McNeill Whistler was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, the daughter of Daniel McNeil, a physician, and Martha Kingsley McNeill, youngest sister of Zephaniah Kingsley, a slave trader and plantation owner.[2]
In 1831, she married George Washington Whistler, a civil engineer and former army officer,[3][4] a widower who had three children. She gave birth to two sons, James McNeill Whistler and William Whistler. Her husband soon accepted a job in Russia as a railway engineer between Moscow and St. Petersburg. She had a son named Kirkie who died age 4. A son named Charlie also died before Anna had moved to Russia.
When James was nine, his art brought the attention of Scottish painter Sir William Allen. Anna then enrolled James in the Imperial Academy of Arts at St. Petersburg. Her husband died in 1849 from cholera.
Anna returned to the United States, to live in Connecticut. Her daughter remained in England after marrying a surgeon. It was then the family lived in poverty but her daughter helped William and James attend private school. James entered West Point just before his 17th birthday and was expelled soon after. Her son William became a surgeon in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.
In 1863, at the advice of her stepdaughter and son, she moved to England, moving in with her son in London, where she remained until her death. She was surprised by his "flamboyant Bohemian lifestyle"; however, she tolerated it, and befriended some of his friends as well. This was around the time the famous painting was made, although it was not the only one. Anna was 67 during the painting of the picture.