Painting by American Artist James McNeill Whistler

Oil on Canvas, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington

Clearly defined silhouettes and strong light source

The setting for this picture was the music room in the London home of Whistler's brother-in-law Seymour Haden. Haden was an influential printmaker of the period, specializing in drypoint and plein-air techniques (working outdoors, directly from the subject), and his influence on Whistler's work was considerable.
While it was being produced, the painting was referred to as The Morning Call, a title which links it to the work of some of the more conventional painters of the period, such as Alfred Stevens, who depicted the social round of the elegant upper middle-classes. The standing figure, Isabella Boott, a friend of the family, is dressed "d l'Amazone" as the fashionable ladies who rode their horses in the parks of London and Paris were called. Having fulfilled her social obligations, she is now making her farewells to her hostess, whose reflected image can be seen in the mirror. The young girl dressed in white, sitting absorbed in her book and taking little notice of the proceedings, is Annie Haden, Seymour's daughter.

Dutch Art Influence
The painting owes much to the Dutch art of the 17th century, and its interest in spatial depth suggests a close study of the work of Ingres. But like so much of Whistler's work, it has the quality of evoking a mood rather than presenting the viewer with an easily readable narrative, despite the number of figures and the rich detail. When the artist saw the painting again at his retrospective in 1892 he wrote to his wife that it looked, "quite primitive - but such sunshine! None of the Dutchmen to compare with it - and such colour!" Whistler painted this with the work of Parisian avant-garde artists very much in mind, and his innovatory treatment of space parallels the work of artists such as Degas and Manet. Degas noted the similarity of their artistic ambitions at this time. "In our begin-nings," he said, "Fantin [Fantin-Latour], Whistler and I were on the same road, the road from Holland." Dutch landscapes and genre scenes offered a serious alternative to the vast historical or mythological canvases, known as machines, that were favoured by the artistic establishment of the day. They were an inspiration to the new wave of artists who were beginning to reject academic subject matter in favour of depicting scenes of everyday life. This ambitious painting was clearly conceived in these terms, and represents a major achievement for an artist who was then only twenty-six years old.

Japanese Art Influence
Whistler repainted the head of Annie, and it seems that the mirror-reflection of the hostess, Deborah Haden, Whistler's sister and Seymour's wife, was a later addition. Certainly her presence makes the painting easier to interpret. The work is painted on a very coarse canvas, although its texture is only apparent in the thinly painted area of the skirt. Nearly a third of the canvas surface is taken up by the cream, green and deep pink of the chintz drapery, and this emphasizes the flat decorative quality of the work and contrasts with the powerfully realized deep space of the picture. The daring divisions of space and the continuance of the picture's action beyond the confines of the canvas anticipate Whistler's later use of Japanese compositional motifs and Degas' later and possibly more familiar works.