Mother of Pearl and Silver: The Andalusian Mother of Pearl and Silver: The Andalusian Mother of Pearl and Silver: The Andalusian is a painting by James McNeill Whistler. The work shows a woman in full figure standing with her back to the viewer, with her head in profile. The model is Ethel Whibley, (née Birnie Philip) the artist's secretary and sister-in-law. The colour scheme of the painting is black, mother of pearl and silver. The title refers to Ethel’s grey silk evening dress, which is a Parisian dress in a belle époque style, with the transparent layered sleeves of the black bolero jacket resembling a traditional Andalusian
Hymn of the Pearl Hymn of the Pearl The Hymn of the Pearl (also Hymn of the Soul, Hymn of the Robe of Glory or Hymn of Judas Thomas the Apostle) is a passage of the apocryphal "Acts of Thomas". In that work, originally written in Syriac, the Apostle Thomas sings the hymn while praying for himself and fellow prisoners. Some scholars believe the hymn antedates the Acts, as it only appears in one Syriac manuscript and one Greek manuscript of the Acts of Thomas. The author of the Hymn is unknown, though there is a belief that it was composed by the Syriac