Explore the Creation and reception of this artwork.
Whistler started on Symphony in White, No. 3 perhaps as early as July 1865. It was the last of his paintings for which Heffernan was a model. He used Milly Jones, the wife of an actor friend, as the second model for the painting. By the middle of August, he had a complete sketch ready, and he continued work on the painting into September. Whistler kept reworking it, however, and it was not until 1867 that he considered it finished. He painted over the final "5" in the date, and replaced it with a "7", to mark the changes it had undergone. In March 1867, William Michael Rossetti wrote of seeing the painting in Whistler's studio, and mentioned that it was previously called The Two Little White Girls. It then went on display at the Royal Academy.The work was greatly admired by Whistler's colleagues, including Henri Fantin-Latour, Alfred Stevens, James Tissot and Edgar Degas. For Degas, the painting served as an inspiration for his own portrait of Eugénie Fiocre in the ballet La Source. Some critics, however, were confused by the title. Philip Hamerton, writing for the Saturday Review on 1 June 1867, remarked:In the "Symphony in White No. III." by Mr. Whistler there are many dainty varieties of tint, but it is not precisely a symphony in white. One lady has a yellowish dress and brown hair and a bit of blue ribbon, the other has a red fan, and there are flowers and green leaves. There is a girl in white on a white sofa, but even this girl has reddish hair; and of course there is the flesh colour of the complexions.
Whistler was always belligerent in his response to critics. He wrote a letter to the editor that the newspaper would not print, but was later reprinted by Whistler himself in his book The Gentle Art of Making Enemies:How pleasing that such profound prattle should inevitably find its place in print!...Bon Dieu! did this wise person expect white hair and chalked faces ? And does he then, in his astounding consequence, believe that a symphony in F contains no other note, but shall be a continued repetition of F, F, F ? . . . Fool!
The painting was originally bought by the wealthy art collector Louis Huth, who later also commissioned Whistler to paint a portrait of his wife. It is in the ownership of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, in Birmingham, England.
La Source Edgar Degas Henri Fantin-Latour Birmingham Eugénie Fiocre Louis Huth Royal Academy William Michael Rossetti James Tissot The Gentle Art of Making Enemies Saturday Review Barber Institute of Fine Arts Philip Hamerton Alfred Stevens