Site

Drawn at some town between Cologne to Aix la Chappelle.

Sitter

Whistler told his sister Deborah Delano Haden (1825-1908) that, returning penniless from the Rhineland, he drew portraits for food and lodgings:

'the first night I made a portrait in pencil (we happily had saved a sheet of paper) for a plate of soup for Erneste and myself … I was unable to move out of the way of a mob of hooting Prussian children ... how we were weary and miserable, - how I, for a glass of milk I had to make the portrait of one of my young tormentors … how for another portrait, we had a piece of black bread and an egg … how we came upon a Dorf where there was a fair - how I there made portraits of "butchers and bakers and candlestick makers" for five groschen a piece that is a little more than fourpence!! ... and yet I did my best - and each one of the eighteen portraits, was a drawing such as Seymour would have been pleased to see come from my hand!' 1