3, Whistler intended to emphasize his artistic philosophy of corresponding arts, inspired by the poet Charles Baudelaire.

The presence of a fan on the floor shows the influence of Japonisme, which was a popular artistic trend in European art at the time.

Whistler was also greatly influenced by his colleague and friend Albert Joseph Moore, and their works show considerable similarities.

One review in particular questioned the presence of other colours in addition to white, a criticism which prompted Whistler to respond with a scathing and sarcastic letter.

Years later, Whistler's former student Walter Sickert criticized the painting as "the low-water mark of the old manner, before the birth of the new."

[1] In 1843, his father relocated the family to Saint Petersburg, Russia, where James received training in painting.

[4] There he met Dante Gabriel Rossetti and other members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who would have a profound influence on Whistler.

Heffernan supposedly had a strong influence over Whistler; his brother-in-law Francis Seymour Haden refused a dinner invitation in the winter of 1863–64 due to her dominant presence in the household.

[6] In January 1864, Whistler's mother Anna – later depicted in the painting Arrangement in Grey and Black – arrived to stay with her son in London.

[11] In March 1867, William Michael Rossetti wrote of seeing the painting in Whistler's studio, and mentioned that it was previously called The Two Little White Girls.

[12] The work was greatly admired by Whistler's colleagues, including Henri Fantin-Latour, Alfred Stevens, James Tissot and Edgar Degas.

[12] For Degas, the painting served as an inspiration for his own portrait of Eugénie Fiocre in the ballet La Source.

One lady has a yellowish dress and brown hair and a bit of blue ribbon, the other has a red fan, and there are flowers and green leaves.

The fan is an oriental element, and an expression of the artistic trend known as Japonisme which was then prevalent in European art.

The use of a musical title was also an expression of the theory of corresponding arts, which was an idea developed by the French poet Charles Baudelaire.