Promenade à Baden

Whistler used two pages from his notebook for this drawing. He later removed the sheets from the notebook and joined them at the center of the composition. Sharply incised lines surround the image, suggesting that he would have brought the viewer closer to the composition and eliminated some of the detail had he taken the conception further. The scene shows a group of figures approaching a columned portico. The general composition recalls earlier views of Dieppe. Architectural features in this drawing suggest that the spot is one of the baths or gambling casinos of Baden Baden. In the distance, buildings nestled against the hills of the Black Forest can be seen. A French geography book of 1878 attributed the city's appeal not to any commercial attraction, but to the beauty of the setting and les agrements de la vie.