The Artist in His Studio

Whistler looks out at you with a palette and brush in his hands, surrounded by his own collection: three Japanese scrolls on the wall, Chinese porcelain on the shelves at the left. The paint is applied in thin muted layers to get at the flatness of Japanese woodblock prints, which he was collecting at the time.

The pose — the painter at his easel, inside his own picture — is lifted from Velázquez. Painted around 1865, when he was working out what he wanted to be.