Technique

Whistler made few alterations in painting this portrait although the outline of the hair has been changed. The Boston Museum website notes: 'She wears a red pinafore over a black dress and emerges from a dark background. The artist applied thin layers of paint to create this soft, diffuse likeness...' 1

Pennell reported Whistler as saying that in this portrait and The Master Smith of Lyme Regis [YMSM 450] 'he had really solved the problem of carrying on his work as he wished to until it was finished.' 2

Conservation History

The Museum of Fine Arts records it as having been cleaned in 1944 and 1948 and relined and surface cleaned in February 1964.