She was educated by private tutors and at the exclusive Brearley School for women students in New York City.

[3] While visiting Europe in the early 1900s, Gertrude Whitney discovered the burgeoning art world of Montmartre and Montparnasse in France.

She studied at the Art Students League of New York with Hendrik Christian Andersen and James Earle Fraser.

[5] Paganisme Immortel, a statue of a young girl sitting on a rock, with outstretched arms, next to a male figure, was shown at the 1910 National Academy of Design.

[18] Spanish Peasant was accepted at the Paris Salon in 1911, and Aztec Fountain was awarded a bronze medal in 1915 at the San Francisco Exhibition.

[20] During World War I, Gertrude Whitney dedicated a great deal of her time and money to various relief efforts, establishing and maintaining a fully operational hospital for wounded soldiers in Juilly, about 35 kilometres (22 mi) northwest of Paris in France.

[19] While at this hospital, Gertrude Whitney made drawings of the soldiers which became plans for her memorials in New York City.

[23] In addition to participating in shows with other artists, Whitney held a number of solo exhibitions during her career.

[21] Whitney also created works which are now in other countries, including the American Expeditionary Forces Memorial in St. Nazaire Harbor in Saint-Nazaire, France (1924).

[32] The Government of France purchased a marble replica of the head of the Titanic Memorial, which is now housed in the Musée du Luxembourg.

[19] She was the primary financial backer for the "International Composer's Guild," an organization created to promote the performance of modern music.

[21] The museum aimed to embrace modernism, shifting away from the notions that American art was largely rural and narrow in scope.

I can hardly visualize, let alone describe, the many shifting scenes of our entertainment: sunken pools and gorgeous white peacocks as line decorations spreading into the gardens; in their swinging cages, brilliant macaws nodding their beaks at George Luks as though they remembered posing for his pictures of them; Robert Chanler showing us his exotic sea pictures, blue-green visions in a marine bathroom; and Mrs. Whitney displaying her studio, the only place on earth in which she could find solitude.

[14] Gertrude had a dear friend named Esther in her youth with whom a number of love letters were uncovered which made explicit the desires both had for a physical relationship that surpassed friendship.

Esther was the daughter of Richard Morris Hunt, the architect who had built Gertrude's family home in New York City and summer home—The Breakers—in Newport, Rhode Island, as well as many of the other Vanderbilts' mansions.

The separation seemed to have worked; for while Esther continued to write heartbroken letters of longing, Gertrude went on to have a bevy of male beaux.

[21] Gertrude Whitney died on April 18, 1942,[47] at age 67, and was interred next to her husband in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.

Happy at Last, Whitney was portrayed by actress Angela Lansbury, who earned an Emmy nomination for her performance.