Walter Greaves (1846-1930)

Greaves and his brother Harry met Whistler in 1863 when he moved to 7 Lindsey Row, only two doors away from the Greaves’s house in Chelsea. Nearby neighbours included Rossetti and Algernon Swinburne. The brothers soon became enthralled with the cosmopolitan American, working as his studio assistants, buying his art supplies, and preparing his canvasses and pigments. In this painting Greaves has shown Whistler standing next to Old Battersea Bridge, which Whistler himself famously portrayed in his series of Nocturnes. The spire of St Mary's Church, Battersea, opposite Chelsea Harbour, can be seen in the background.