‘Arrangement in Yellow and Gray’: Effie Deans

Whistler considered the formal and painterly qualities of his works more important than any reference to what they depicted. He often gave paintings musical titles indicating the colours in the composition. This is one of a series of studies he called ‘Arrangements’; it later acquired a literary sub-title Effie Deans referring to the heroine of Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Heart of Midlothian.