Copy after Ziegler's 'La Vision de St Luc', The Hunterian

Whistler's Copy after Ziegler's 'La Vision de St Luc' is signed and dated 1857. 1

J. C. Ziegler, La Vision de St Luc, Musée de Dunkerque

It is not known exactly when Whistler wrote to the Comte de Nieuwerkerke, Directeur des Musées, requesting permission to copy a picture by Jules Claude Ziegler (1804-1856) in the Musée du Luxembourg 'representant "La Vision de St. Luc".' His letter is undated but the letter is endorsed '5 juin' in another hand, when the copy was probably already complete. 2

Ziegler's La Vision de St Luc, bought by the French State at the Salon of 1839, and hung in the Musée du Luxembourg in 1857, was deposited in the Musée de Dunkerque in 1872. It is formally recorded as going on display in the Luxembourg on 1 November 1857. The date of 1857 written on Whistler's copy implies that he painted it immediately after Ziegler's picture was hung in the museum.

On 6 August 1900 Whistler told the Pennells that when he was first studying in Paris he had a commission from Captain Williams of Stonington, Conn., 'to copy as many pictures as I chose for twenty-five dollars a piece, and I copied … a picture … of St. Luke, with his halo and draperies.' 3