Whistler's Mother

The work known as “Whistler’s Mother” may have endured in the public consciousness, but the American-born, London-based painter James McNeill Whistler’s frequent subject for about 20 years was his red-haired partner, Joanna Hiffernan, whom he often depicted in white — a resonant image in Victorian culture.

In her caption, Beckinsale joked that a person who made it into the background of the pic is the "ghost of Whistler's mother," referencing the subject of the 1871 painting by American painter James McNeil.

An eccentric, accident-prone British art caretaker wreaks havoc at the U.S. unveiling of Whistler’s Mother.

Her makeup artist Lazarus Baptiste snapped a picture of the scene and describes the decisive moment as King sitting solemnly like “Whistler’s Mother” with Kelly towering over her with his arm outstretched like a grandiose “Hamlet holding Yorick’s skull.”

Her exposed flesh swiftly went viral, with online pranksters adding it to images of everything from the Statue of Liberty to Whistler's Mother.