标题: Whistler’s Mother; An American Painting [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 7-5-2015 14:55 标题: Whistler’s Mother; An American Painting Ellen Gamerman, Why Was Whistler’s Mom Such a Grump? A new exhibit at the Clark Art Institute explores how ‘Whistler’s Mother’ became a pop-culture icon. Wall Street Journal, July 3, 2015. http://www.wsj.com/articles/why- ... -a-grump-1435851300
Note:
(a) "bad teeth hidden behind a set jaw"
(i) set (adj): "5a: IMMOVABLE, RIGID <set frown>" www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/set
(ii) set (adj):
"4 of a person's face or expression : in a firm position that does not move or change
<He stared at me with angry eyes and a set jaw>
<a set smile>
<a crowd of set faces>"
Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary, undated http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/set
(iii) set (adj): "1.2: (of a person’s expression) held for an unnaturally long time without changing, typically as a reflection of determination" http://www.oxforddictionaries.co ... merican_english/set
(b) "The show [of whistler's artwork] presents the work as a bold example of abstraction in early modern art, with its geometric blocks of color and spare style that rejected the cloying depictions of motherhood that had preceded it."
(d) "Anna’s southern gentility—she was born in 1804 in Wilmington, NC—put a smooth cover on a complex past."
(i) Anna was James McNeill Whistler’s mother.
(ii) The noun "gentility" has to corresponding adjectives. See
William Dwight Whitney (ed), The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language. vol 3. New York: The Century Co, 1889, at page 2489 https://books.google.com/books?i ... age&q=gentility gentile gentle&f=false
(right column)
(iii) Both adjectives "gentile" and "gentle" are from the same "Latin gentīlis belonging to the same family; see [noun feminine] gens [Roman clan; tribe]." http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/gentle
(e) "An early Whistler image, the etching 'Black Lion Wharf,' hangs on the wall."
(i) Black Lion Wharf. Metropolitan Museum of Art. undated www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/372709
(ii) University of Glasgow also has one, whose web page for the same etching states, "Known impressions: 104."
(f) “The pious woman not known for vanity praised her own likeness”