White lady plays dress-up in Whistler's Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain.

Japan was all the rage at this point and served as inspiration for this Caucasian woman’s wardrobe.

Christine Spartali served as the model. 

Whistler's large signature was rather unappealing and prevented several people, including Christine's father, from purchasing the painting. 

Its provenance was not very well documented but it was eventually purchased by Frederick Leyland, a wealthy shipping magnate. He displayed the painting in his Asian fetish room designed by Thomas Jeckyll. Leyland decided that the old room clashed with the new painting and hired Whistler to redo the entire thing. See Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room for what happened afterward.

After Leyland's death, the painting bounced around for a bit until it was purchased by Charles Lang Freer in 1903 for $18,240. A year later he also purchased The Peacock Room and donated the entire thing to the Smithsonian. 

The work is also known as La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine or just The Princess from the Land of Porcelain.