Blue and Coral: The Little Blue Bonnet may have been started in 1897 and was certainly completed in 1898. 1

The model, Muriel Smith (1883-1923), was posing to Whistler, probably for this portrait, in August 1897. Whistler's sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), was involved in making, cleaning, altering, or repairing a dress, almost certainly for this portrait, and Whistler wrote to her: 'I do hope the dress came out all right - pity I hurried you - for find the abominable girl Muriel can't come until Saturday.' 2

Blue and Coral: The Little Blue Bonnet, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

When it was exhibited at the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in 1898 it was, according to the second edition of the catalogue, 'fresh from the easel.' 3