Technique

The Little Rose of Lyme Regis, Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Whistler made few alterations in painting this portrait although the outline of the hair has been changed. The Boston Museum website notes: 'She wears a red pinafore over a black dress and emerges from a dark background. The artist applied thin layers of paint to create this soft, diffuse likeness...' 1

Pennell reported Whistler as saying that in this portrait and The Master Smith of Lyme Regis [YMSM 450] 'he had really solved the problem of carrying on his work as he wished to until it was finished.' 2

Conservation History

The Little Rose of Lyme Regis, photograph, 1980

The Little Rose of Lyme Regis, Boston Museum of Fine Arts

The Museum of Fine Arts records it as having been cleaned in 1944 and 1948 and relined and surface cleaned in February 1964.