Anna McNeill Whistler

Anna Matilda (née McNeill) Whistler (September 27, 1804 – January 31, 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 and Black No.1, often titled Whistler's Mother. Biography Anna McNeill Whistler was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, to Charles Daniel McNeill (1756–1828), a physician, and Martha Kingsley McNeill, daughter of Zephaniah Kingsley Sr. (one of the founders of the University of New Brunswick) and youngest sister of Zephaniah Kingsley (a slave trader and plantation owner, and the husband of the African Ana Madgigine Jai). In 1831, she married George Washington Whistler, a civil engineer, former army officer, and widower who had three children. She gave birth to two sons, James McNeill Whistler and William McNeill 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 four. A son named Charlie also died before Anna had moved to Russia.