Whistler, Copy after Odier's 'Episode de la retraite de Moscou', Colby College Museum of Art

Whistler's Copy after Odier's 'Episode de la retraite de Moscou' probably dates from 1857. 1

On 17 June 1856, Whistler, sponsored by Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre (1806-1874), obtained permission to enter the Musées Impériaux, Paris, 'pour les jours d'étude' (on study days). 2 There is, however, no record in the Archives du Louvre of Whistler having requested permission to copy any painting by Edouard-Alexandre Odier (1800-1887).

On 6 August 1900 Whistler told the Pennells that when he was first studying in Paris, he received a commission from 'Captain Williams' of Stonington, Connecticut,

'to copy as many pictures as I chose for twenty-five dollars a piece, and I copied a picture, I cannot remember whom it was by, of a snow scene, with a horse and a soldier standing by it and another in the snow at his feet.' 3

Two of Whistler's copies for Captain Williams are dated 1857 (Copy after Schnetz's 'Les Adieux du consul Boëtus à sa famille' [YMSM 013], and Copy after Ziegler's 'La Vision de St Luc' [YMSM 015]). The other copies were almost certainly painted in that year, or very early in 1858, and were back in Stonington by March 1858. 4