Titles

Only one title has been recorded:

• 'The Little Lady Edith 0f Eden’ (1968, Mrs E. Shaw). 1
• 'The Little Lady Edith of Eden' (1980, YMSM). 2

Description

The sitter described the portrait:

'My dress at the time Mr. Whistler was painting my portrait was bright navy blue with a cerise yoke, which he and I disliked. He may have used an artist's prerogative and changed the colour scheme. My hair was a warm brown with highlights of red and gold.

He told me he was calling it "The Little Lady Edith" of Eden, and "Burning Gold." that was his description of my hair.' 3

In another letter she added: 'I was wearing a blue dress with a cerise yoke pleats & a black ribbon bow on my hair at the back.' 4 She wrote in her memoir of Whistler: 'He liked my hair, which he always spoke of as "burning gold", and my pink cheeks'; she also wrote of the black satin ribbon as being 'round my head to contrast with my red-gold hair.' 5

Sitter

Edith Burkitt (1884-1973). The daughter of Emma and James Burkitt, she married Walter Way Shaw (1882-1957). Her memoirs of Whistler were edited and published in 1968. 6 She died in North Carolina on 3 March 1973.