Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl

Image credit: Tate

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This picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1865 as 'The Little White Girl'. It shows a young woman, dressed in white, leaning against a mantelpiece and gazing dreamily into a mirror. She is captured in a moment of deep contemplation. Her face is reflected in the mirror and silhouetted against a seascape, reinforcing the dream-like atmosphere. The reflected image is sad and careworn, and one is tempted to draw some kind of link with the wedding ring so prominently displayed on her left hand. Whistler may also have intended to evoke Velázquez's 'Rokeby Venus' (National Gallery, London), where the reflection of the woman's face is similarly at odds with her own idealised image. The poet Swinburne was so inspired by Whistler's picture that he composed a verse ballad, 'Before the Mirror', in response.

Tate Britain

London

Title

Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl

Date

1864

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 76.5 x W 51.1 cm

Accession number

N03418

Acquisition method

Bequeathed by Arthur Studd 1919

Work type

Painting

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Tate Britain

Millbank, London, Greater London SW1P 4RG England

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