Portrait of Maud Franklin dates from 1886. 1

On 1 July 1886 Malcolm Charles Salaman (1855-1940) wrote that recently he had seen a painting 'almost ready for exhibition' in Whistler's studio:

'[A] full length figure of a girl in an out-door black dress, with a fur cape and a becoming hat trimmed with flowers. The face is daintily pretty and piquant and the grace and spontaneity of the attitude are charming. She stands against a dark background ... The painting of the head is as refined and beautiful a piece of work as I have ever seen.' 2

Whistler and Portrait of Maud Franklin, photograph, GUL Whistler PH1/120

Salaman's description fits a painting in the background of a photograph of Whistler in his Fulham Road studio, dating from 1886/1888, now in the Whistler Collection in Glasgow University Library. 3

The artist Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) wrote that he had seen Whistler at work on several portraits of 'Maud' ̶ Maud Franklin (1857-1939) ̶ which were probably Portrait of Maud Franklin [YMSM 353], Harmony in Black, No. 10 [YMSM 357], and Maud [YMSM 358]. 4