The Storm | Cleveland Museum of Art

During the summer of 1861, the artist Matthew White Ridley introduced Whistler to Edwin Edwards, a lawyer who had left his profession to devote himself to his avocations of art and music. Edwards used a covered boat for etching expeditions on the river---no doubt inspired by "le botin," the covered boat from which the Barbizon artist Charles Daubigny sketched the Seine (see The Boat in Conflans, elsewhere in the exhibition). In June 1861, despite persistent rain, Edwards invited Ridley and Whistler to take the boat on a camping trip to Maple Durham. On this voyage, Whistler made several drypoints, including The Storm, in which Ridley battles against driving wind and rain with the river foaming in the background.