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The subject of this painting, Lady Archibald Campbell, was interested in the art of her time and posed for three full-length portraits by Whistler. This was the only one to be completed and to survive. Lady Campbell's family, however, did not share her appreciation of contemporary art and rejected the painting, claiming it represented "a street walker encouraging a shy follower with a backward glance." But the work was purchased for the W. P. Wilstach Collection in 1895, making it the first Whistler painting bought for an American public collection.

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