James McNeill Whistler painted his mother in profile. Everyone knows that: The painting may not be in America, but it is pretty much everywhere in the wider culture, having been acknowledged in repeat gags of “The Simpsons,” Cole Porter’s deathless song “You’re the Top” (“You’re an O’Neill drama/ You’re Whistler’s mama/ You’re Camembert”) and Vladimir Nabokov’s equally deathless “Lolita.” You’ll also probably know that Whistler painted lots of ethereal, fog-filled pictures to which he gave musical titles: “Nocturnes,” “Symphonies” and “Harmonies.”
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