La Courtisane des Étudiants, Heidelberg dates from between September and October 1858, and was given to Whistler's niece, Annie Harriet Haden (1848-1937).
La Courtisane des Étudiants, Heidelberg, photograph, Pennell Collection, Library of Congress
It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 249).
La Courtisane des Étudiants, Heidelberg, photograph, Pennell Collection, Library of Congress
The German town of Heidelberg, situated by the River Neckar, is the site of an ancient and famous University.
La Courtisane des Étudiants, Heidelberg, photograph, Pennell Collection, Library of Congress
The word courtesan suggests that the woman is a prostitute with wealthy clients, not usually students. The young woman appears well but not over-dressed, and perfectly respectable except that the young man has his arm round her. She may have been a girl-friend, barmaid or other maid-servant, or indeed, as the inscription suggests, a prostitute. It was an odd drawing for Whistler to give to his young niece, or indeed, any of the Hadens.
La Courtisane des Étudiants, Heidelberg, photograph, Pennell Collection, Library of Congress
A summary pencil sketch, possibly taken from a sketchbook.
According to Annie Harriet Haden (1848-1937), Whistler gave her some 'trivial sketches', which she put in an album he had brought from Paris, 'with my name in gold, stamped outside', possibly at Christmas 1858. 1 These may have been removed and framed later, because she lent 'A frame of ten early pencil sketches' to the Whistler Memorial exhibition in 1905 (cat. no. 207), and these were unmounted and dispersed at a later date.
1: Mrs Thynne to Pennell, 20 February 1907, Library of Congress