4. James McNeill Whistler – Arrangement In Grey And Black No.1, (Whistler’s Mother) 1871
The work ‘Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1’, is rather more famous under its colloquial name of ‘Whistler’s Mother’, and is a painting in oils on canvas created by the American-born painter James McNeill Whistler in 1871. The painting is displayed in a frame of Whistler’s own design in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, having been bought by the French state in 1891. It is now one of the most famous works by an American artist outside of the United States. It has been variously described as an American icon, and a Victorian Mona Lisa.