James McNeill Whistler

This c. 1900 painting entitled “Gold and Brown: Self Portrait” by James McNeill Whistler hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

John Walker in his 1975 book The National Gallery of Art, describes Whistler and this self-portrait this way:

Known for his biting wit, extravagant style, and personal eccentricities, the publicity-conscious Whistler used self-portraiture as a means to manipulate his public persona.

Gold and Brown belongs to a small group of works executed in the mid-1890s in which Whistler replaced the flamboyance of his earlier self-portraits with an aura of introspection and heightened spirituality. Here he presents himself as a reserved, mature gentleman who turns his head to acknowledge the viewer's presence with a slight smile. Whistler's trademarks—the monocle, the white lock of hair, the mustache, and the small imperial beard—are all present. Completing the ensemble is the red ribbon of the Légion d'Honneur, France's highest decoration, in his lapel.

Whistler's transformation of his public image can be partly ascribed to his despondency over the recent death of his wife, Beatrice. At the same time, he wanted to present himself as regarded by his admirers as a “living old master”: a status he could claim after the French government purchased his Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1: The Painter's Mother (best-known as Whistler's Mother, 1871, Musée d'Orsay, Paris) in 1892. In her study of Whistler's changing image, art historian Sarah Burns noted that this development, along with his purported disdain for financial and material considerations, rendered him a modernized, scientifically verified recreation of the idealized, lofty, disinterested “Old Master." According to the artist's sister-in-law, Gold and Brown was the portrait that “Whistler wanted to be remembered by.” – Walker, 1975.