Technique

Chelsea Shops, Freer Gallery of Art

Chelsea Shops, lithograph, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The lithograph Chelsea Shops was originally drawn in 1888. Whistler's copy is fairly literal, although there are slight changes of emphasis, in the figures, and the lines are sharp where they were softer and less precise in the original.

Conservation History

The letter is on two single sheets, which originally had a fold down the middle. These are now laid down on paper.