Head of an Old Man Smoking probably dates from the spring of 1858.

In 1858 the Maison Fontaine, frame-makers at Cité Bergère, No. 2, and Faubourg Montmartre, No. 6, Paris, sent Whistler a bill for purchases during the year, including frames for size 6 canvasses in February and March. 1 The French canvas size 6 is 41 × 33 cm for a figure, 41 × 27 cm for a landscape, and 41 × 24 cm for a marine. Head of an Old Man Smoking [YMSM 025] matches the size for a figure canvas, which suggests that this painting could have been painted early in 1858.

Head of an Old Man Smoking, Musée d'Orsay

La Mère Gérard (1), Colby College Museum of Art

The technique is comparable to other paintings of this period, particularly La Mère Gérard (1) [YMSM 026] and, to a lesser extent, Portrait of Luke A. Ionides [YMSM 032].

The Pennells in their biography of Whistler implied a date of about 1859, which is possible, stylistically, but the evidence points to a date of 1858. 2