UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

bonnet, cape, child, clothing, dress, fashion, girl standing, hat, curtain, portrait.

There are several minor variations on the title, as follows:


'Dry Point, Portrait' (1874, Pall Mall Galleries). 1
'A Young Lady' (1874, Ralph Thomas, Jr (1840-1876)). 2
'Portrait of a Young Lady' (1874, James Anderson Rose (1819-1890)). 3
'Annie Haden' (1877, Whistler). 4
'Annie Haden' (1881, Union League Club). 5
'Annie Haden' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 6
'Portrait of Annie Haden' (1893, World's Columbian Exposition). 7


'Annie Haden' was Whistler's title, it was accepted by most later cataloguers, and it was correct, this being a portrait of Annie Harriet Haden (1848-1937).

A girl with long hair falling about her shoulders, and wearing a round hat with a curved brim, a long cape, and a full skirt reaching to mid-calf, stands in front of a curtain, turning slightly to the right, but looking toward the front. A faint sketch of a girl's head (mostly her hair) is faintly visible upside down, below the cloak.

Annie Harriet Haden (1848-1937) was at this time twelve years old. This would have been drawn in the house of her parents Deborah Delano Haden (1825-1908) and Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910) in Sloane Street, London. In the 1870s Whistler wrote, 'One of my very best -' on a good impression in the collection of Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) ().

Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921) was critical of the fashions of 1860 as shown in this drypoint:

'A girl, apparently of ten years old, in the ugly dress of 1860. She is standing against a curtain. She wears a soup-plate, and her cloak and frock assume the shape of a pyramid, below the base of which are seen her slender legs. She wears slight shoes with rosettes. The slim right hand touches a fold of the cloak.' 8

On the other hand, the Pennells, writing in 1908, described it as 'the beautiful dry-point Annie Haden, in big crinoline and soup-plate hat'. 9