Whistler's Mother
by James Abott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
What a beautiful painting! Yes, it is indeed the painting that inspired the picture of Eddie's mum that we can see during the song "Eddie" (actually it's Meatloaf dressed up as an old woman).
History has it that this painting, called "Arrangement in Grey and Black:Portrait of the Painter's Mother" as known as "Whistler's Mother", was done in 1871 by American artist James McNeill Whistler.
More than just the portrait of the artist's own mother, it has become a symbol of the puritan American family and of its moral rigidity.
This painting, considered as a major marsterpiece of Amricain art (just like "American Gothic") is exhibited at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.
Interestingly enough, the use of this particular painting may not be acoincidence. Indeed, Eddie and James McNeill Whistler have several things in common:
Both are artists (a painter and a musician)
Both were boisterous child who gave their mothers a hard time.
Both have fallen for bubbly English redheads (Whislter fell in love with Joanna Heffernan and Eddie loves Columbia)
Both are something of deliquents (Whistler could be very violent at times and he got into trouble for that and Eddie is "a low down cheap little punk")
So many coincidences, and if it wasn't enough, we can add that in 1888 Whistler married a girl named Beatrix Goodwin and nicknamed 'Trixie'!!!!!
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