Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room dates from between 1860 and 1861. 1

Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room, Freer Gallery of Art

1860: One of the sitters, Whistler's niece Annie Harriet Haden (1848-1937) , recalled (many years later) that the date of 'The Morning Call' (as it was then called) 'must have been in '60 or '61, after his return from Paris.' 2

1861: George du Maurier (1834-1896) wrote to Thomas Armstrong (1832-1911), that Whistler had just painted out 'Annie's head', because the artist Frederick Leighton (1830-1896) 'told him it was out of harmony, and the last time I saw him he was in complete despair, couldn't put it in again – hope it's all right now. He's got deuced little time.' 3 This suggests Whistler tried, but failed, to complete it for submission to the Royal Academy exhibition in May 1861. He, or his half-sister Deborah Delano Haden (1825-1908) , must have reported in late May or early June that the painting had been completed, because in July Whistler's mother, Anna Matilda Whistler (1804-1881), wrote from America, 'how it cheered me to hear of the fortnights painting in the Music room, at Sloan St [sic] to finish my picture.' 4