American Art Collaborative

This watercolor was presented to George A. Lucas (1824-1909), the art-agent and collector, who subsequently gifted it to Henry Walters in 1908, the year before his death. The model is Maud Franklin, who Whistler met in London, perhaps as early as 1872 when she was just 15 years old. Franklin posed in a kimono as body-double for Mrs. Frances Leyland, who Whistler was painting at this time. Franklin seems to have become romantically involved with the artist during these sittings. After they relocated to France in 1879 Franklin suffered ill health and Whistler depicted her in bed several times (see James McNeill Whistler "Drawings, Pastels, and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné," by Margaret F. MacDonald, pp. 342-344). She was the mother of two chidren with Whistler, but the affair ended in 1888 when he married Beatrix Godwin.