Couple seated at a table

About this artwork

The anecdote implied by this scene is ambiguous. We cannot be certain whether the woman is reading a small book or holding a hand of cards. Her relationship to the smoker is not clear. However, the drawing does reveal the artist's interest in illustration during the late 1850s. A very slight underdrawing is still visible beneath the two figures, particularly in the faint outline of a head to the left of the bonneted woman and another head to the right of the hatted man. Whistler later elaborated...