Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• 'Harmony in Grey and Peach Colour' (1874, Flemish Gallery). 1
• 'A Lady in White' (1910, ISSPG). 2
• 'The White Lady' (1912, T. R. Way). 3
• 'The White Girl' (1916, Sotheby's). 4
• 'The White Girl' (1917, Kraushaar Galleries). 5
• 'White Girl. No. IV' (1921, Pennell). 6
• 'Harmony in Grey and Peach Colour' (1980, YMSM). 7

'Harmony in Grey and Peach Colour' is the preferred title.

McBride admired the painting but was very critical of the title as published in 1917, although somewhat shaky on the actual titles of Whistler's white symphonies:

'It is … a little difficult to have a second "White Girl" sprung upon us, especially one with no relationship to the first. To be sure the protagonist in the second painting wears a white dress, but it takes more than that to make a "White Girl"…. it will scarcely do to begin a series of "White Girls No. 1, No. 2." etc., now that Whistler is no longer en scene. Even the "Girl in White" is preferable.' 8

Description

A full-length portrait of a young woman, in vertical format. She wears a white dress with a close-fitting top and fairly narrow skirt. It has a grey and black ruff at the neck and a black rosette at her waist. Her left arm appears to be covered with a three-quarter length sleeve while the other has a long transparent gauze sleeve falling loosely from a short cap at the shoulder. A pinkish beige cloak is draped over her left arm and falls down her left side to the floor. She faces the viewer, with arms at her side, her right hand holding a fan. She has short brown hair, with a short curly fringe. The carpet has a neat chequered pattern in red and black around the edge, and a woven pattern of vertical grey lines under her feet. The dado is black; at the right edge, behind the woman, is a large grey vase, with a sprig of blossom. Above the dado at left, is Whistler's butterfly monogram on a circular field. On the wall at upper right there are two large palm fans, one black, and the upper one, white with a pattern of pink flowers. At upper left, there is a picture, possibly a view of the river Thames, with, in front and below it, sprays of pink and white blossom.

Sitter

Maud Franklin (1857-1939). The portrait was titled 'The White Lady' by T. R. Way, who for no good reason thought it to be a portrait of Joanna Hiffernan (b. ca 1843-d.1886), and 'White Girl No. IV' by the Pennells, who thought it a portrait of Miss Way. 9

However, the features are very like those of Maud Franklin, who had begun to pose for Whistler in Mrs Leyland's dress for Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland [YMSM 106], which was begun in 1871 and first exhibited in 1874, and posed for numerous portraits thereafter, including Maud Franklin [YMSM 132], reproduced above.