The Witch of Endor raising Samuel probably dates from the summer of 1848. Whistler's mother Anna Matilda Whistler (1804-1881) wrote from St Petersburg, Russia to her son, then in Portishead, England, 'Your master looked at that sketch you did for me "the Witch of Endor raising Samuel" and said it was a good effort.' 1 The 'master' was Alexander Osipovich Koritsky (1818-1866), who had been Whistler's teacher in Russia.