"'An Arrangement in Silver and Bile.'
"The artist has represented this bilious young lady as looking haughty in a dirty white dress, a grey polonaise, bound by a grey green sash, a grey hat, with the most unhealthy green feather; furthermore, she wears black shoes with green bows, and stands defiantly on a grey floor cloth, opposite a grey wall with a black dado. Two dyspeptic butterflies hover wearily above her head in search of a bit of colour ... evidently losing heart at the grey expanse around.... A picture should charm, not depress, it should tend to elevate our thoughts!"—Society.
"This picture represents a child of ten, and is called a harmony in grey and green, but the prevailing tone is a rather unpleasant yellow, and the complexion of the face is wholly unchildlike."—Echo.
"A large etching in oil, a 'Rhapsody in Raw Child and Cobwebs,' by Mr. Whistler."—Artist.
"Mr. Whistler is as spectral as ever in an unattractive portrait of an awkward little girl, happily not rendered additionally ridiculous by a musical title."
Bedford Observer.
"Flattery is objectionable in art as elsewhere, but some portrait painters seem to find it impossible to tell the truth without being rude."—Academy.
"Mr. Whistler has a portrait of a young lady that excites absolute astonishment.
"What charm can there be in such colours as these? What effect do they produce which would not have been better by warmer and less repulsive tints?"
Leeds Mercury.