Mother and Daughter (La Mere Malade)

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

The Chicago raisonné comments about this image, page 487: "Like 'Afternoon Tea', 'Mother and Daughter' depicts Whistler's mother-in-law, Frances Birnie Philip, and one of his sisters-in-law, probably Ethel Whibley, posing together in the drawing room of the house on the rue du Bac in Paris. The women wear the same attire in both images, suggesting that Whistler made the two drawings at about the same time, perhaps even the same day.

Both double portraits can be dated to the fall of 1897, when the dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard visited Whistler and selected 'Afternoon Tea' for inclusion in his second album of original prints. It has been suggested that at the end of that visit, Vollard carried away with him not one but two lithographic transfer drawings...

Auguste Clot, a former Lemercier employee...was the printer for Vollard's second album and the contents of Clot's estate included 45 impressions of 'Afternoon Tea' and 160 impressions of 'Mother and Daughter'. The presence of so many impressions of 'Mother and Daughter' indicates he must have been the printer for both ... double portraits. In fact, it is quite likely that when Vollard....also had the printer edition 'Mother and Daughter' for a projected third album of original prints."

The source of the alternative title of "La Mere Malade" has not been determined, it was perhaps a dealer's title.