Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

 

M.0303
'The Woman in White'

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1862
Collection: Wadsworth Athenaeum, Wadsworth, CT
Accession Number: 1925
Medium: pen and brown ink
Support: off-white laid paper
Size: 9 x 8 7/8" (178 x 225 mm)
Signature: 'Jemmie Whistler' (on letter)
Inscription: 'Whistler's Extraordinary picture the WOMAN IN WHITE'

'The Woman in White'

Description

'The Woman in White', Wadsworth Athenaeum
'The Woman in White', Wadsworth Athenaeum

A drawing of a man bearing a sandwich board, which Whistler explained in his letter to G. A. Lucas on 26 June 1862:

"The White Girl" was refused at the Academy ... Nothing daunted I am now exhibiting the White Child at another exposition where she shows herself proudly to all London! ... In the catalogue of this exhibition it is marked

"Rejected at the Academy"

What do you say to that! isn't that the way to fight 'em! Besides which it is affiched all over the Town as

[drawing of placard inscribed:] Whistler's Extraordinary picture the WOMAN IN WHITE

That is done of course by the Directors but certainly it is waging an open war with the Academy, eh?' 1

Notes:

1: GUW #11977.

Last updated: 11th March 2021 by Margaret