The Garden

During the 1870s Whistler began entertaining at home, presiding over dinner parties and Sunday breakfasts that included other artists, dealers, and collectors among the guests. This lithograph records a similar but more informal gathering—a tea in the garden of the Whistlers’ house in Chelsea. The attendees have been identified as (from left to right) Marguerite Thomas, wife of the playwright Brandon Thomas, one of whose children was painted by Whistler; artists and Whistler followers Walter Sickert and Sidney Starr; Brandon Thomas; Beatrice Whistler; and Ethel Birnie Philip, Beatrice’s sister. According to Starr’s recollections, the Whistlers received guests for tea out of doors on summer Sundays.