Cheyne Walk house where Whistler painted his mistress Joanna Hiffernan for rent for £2,500 per week
The American born artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler lived at No. 101 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea between 1863 and 1866. It was here that he painted his nocturnes series and also Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl featuring his mistress, muse and business manager, Joanna Hiffernan. The house, which was sold in May 2013 after being marketed at a price of £5 million, has recently been redecorated and is now available to rent.
Whistler – whose other homes on Cheyne Walk included No. 96 (1866 – 1878), No. 21 (1890) and No. 74 (1902 – 1903) – painted The Little White Girl in the drawing room of No. 101 Cheyne Walk in 1864. The painting, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1865, includes a fireplace that remains in the drawing room of the house and is described as representing a “move away from the realism of the French painter Gustave Courbet, who had previously been a great influence on him”.
Now Grade II listed the house, which originally formed part of a mansion built for the Earls of Lindsey in 1674 on the site of Thomas More’s farmhouse, also features 3 bedrooms, 2 further reception rooms and large landscaped gardens to both the front and rear that have been opened to the public as part of the Chelsea Festival and National Garden Scheme.
Agents Strutt & Parker seek £2,500 per week for No. 101 Cheyne Walk. A statue of Whistler by Nicholas Dimbleby was unveiled in September 2005 on the corner of Cheyne Walk and Battersea Bridge.
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