Technique

Unknown.

Conservation History

According to the Pennells, 'Maud' [Franklin] posed to Whistler for 'the old scheme of "blue upon blue" ', but the painting was defaced by the artist in 1879 so that it would not fall into the hands of his creditors. 1 When his sister-in-law wrote to ask what should be done about 'the Boy or Girl in blue' (see The Blue Girl: Portrait of Miss Elinor Leyland [YMSM 111]), Whistler replied,

'If there be any other blue girl ( - Miss Franklin for instance) then that is not their affair - surely Waddell said that all the scratched and destroyed stretchers &c &c &c were to be left out - and the best answer to all is that everything of the kind was sent by them or their permission to you after I had left the White House.' 2

Frame

Unknown.