Composition

In 1894, Whistler refused to rework a pastel, probably this. Writing to Alexander Reid (1854-1928) he said:

'I have had not [a] moment before in which I could tell you that your propositions about the pastel is no such simple matter as you seem to think -

The picture is complete as it stands ...

But to change it by the further work you suggest, is quite another affair -

I should have to take a model and look over the whole thing - and the end of it would be a new picture that I might as well do on a new paper.' 1

Technique

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1275) as 'The Fortune Teller'.