Rose and Silver–Portrait of Mrs. Whibley

1. Glazer, Jacobson, McCarthy, Roeder, wall label, 2019:
An artist's studio in the late nineteenth century was regarded as a sanctuary of creativity and mystery. Whistler played on the appeal of the studio by welcoming patrons and collectors into his work space and providing a tantalizing peek behind the scenes.

2. Lee Glazer, 2018:
Date changed from 1894–95 to 1895–96 based on date of Ethel Birnie-Philip's 1895 marriage to Charles Whibley and the first exhibition of the painting in 1896 at the Grafton Gallery.

3. Susan Hobbs, 1978:
Ethel Birnie Philip Whibley, Whistler's sister-in-law, was his secretary and occasional model until her marriage in 1895. She is posed casually on the edge of a chair, much as she might have appeared in Whistler's studio on a spontaneous visit. The small watercolor demonstrates Whistler's finesse in a difficult medium. He created the illusion of fine detail both in the ruffles and feathers of Mrs. Whibley's dress and hat with only a few strokes of paint. It is likely that the work was executed in the early 1890s, for the artist was working on three full-length oil paintings of Mrs. Whibley in 1894 which bear some resemblance to the Freer watercolor. The artist was proud of Rose and Silver, for he arranged Mr. Freer's acquisition of the watercolor and its addition to a collection which he knew was to become a part of the Smithsonian.