Two figures
Classification
Drawing
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Accession Number
F1898.195
Tags
American ArtCharles Lang Freer collectionUnited Statesmanwoman
About this artwork
As he traveled, armed with a pencil and a sketchpad, Whistler was often intrigued by the brief encounters between strangers that he observed along the way. This rapidity drawn image recalls a passage in Flaubert's The Sentimental Education. Abroad a river steamer, the artist-hero "noticed a gentleman exchanging flirtatious remarks with a peasant girl" in the midst of an anonymouse crowd of passengers and sailors.