The music room

In 1858 in Paris Whistler fell ill and went to stay with the family of his half-sister Deborah. She was married to the surgeon, Francis Seymour Haden, who owned a considerable collection of prints, especially those of Rembrandt, and was on the path of becoming a highly accomplished etcher in his own right. Haden encouraged his brother-in-law to start etching during his convalescence, and Whistler found convenient subjects in the Haden household at 62 Sloane Street, London. The man reading the newspaper is Haden; the woman is Deborah Haden, and the other figure is James Reeves Traer, Haden’s medical partner.