Lent by W. Alexander, Esq.
"A sketch of Miss Alexander, in which much must be imagined."—Standard.
"There is character in it, but it is unpleasant character. Of anything like real flesh tones the painting is quite innocent."—Builder.
"But what can we say of Mr. Whistler? His portrait of Miss Alexander is certainly one of the strangest and most eccentric specimens of Portraiture we ever saw. If we were unacquainted with his singular theories of Art, we should imagine he had merely made a sketch and left it, before the colours were dry, in a room where chimney-sweeps were at work.... Nobody who sets any value upon the roses and lilies that adorn the cheeks of our blooming girls can accept such murky tints as these as representative of a young English lady"—Era.
"It is simply a disagreeable presentment of a disagreeable young lady."—Liverpool Weekly Mercury.
"Mr. Whistler again appears on the walls with a characteristic full-length life-size portrait of a girl, Miss Alexander.
"This work is devoid of colour, being arranged in Black and White and intermediate tones of grey. The general effect is dismal in the extreme, and one cannot but wonder how an artist of undoubted talent should wilfully persist in such perversities of judgment."—Western Daily Mercury.
"Miss Alexander, almost in Black and White, and about the most unattractive piece of work in the Galleries."—Edinburgh Daily Review.
"Well, bless thee, J. Whistler! We do not hanker after your brush system. Farewell!"—Punch.