Drawings

Whistler's drawings give a more informal picture of his personal relationships with people and of the way he worked than his paintings, because they were usually made for personal use and were not intended for sale. Some drawings were trial studies for larger scale paintings. He also liked to make quick sketches from everyday life, drawing ordinary people and city streets. His drawings also included designs for furniture, jewellery and exhibitions.

In the late 1860s, influenced by Albert Moore, Whistler sought to improve his drawing technique and so made studies from classical sculpture. For a short time he began to make more elaborate preparatory drawings for his paintings.
His pencil drawings are extremely expressive combining soft marks, black streaks, sharp lines, hooked characters and sweeping strokes.