Description

'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