3-002-445 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Cadet Days (Picnic), 1852. A young cadet at a luxurious picnic surrounded by elegant young women. This drawing was previously attributed to Whistler, who made many drawings, sometimes in the margins of his text books, while a cadet at West Point between 1851 and 1854. However, Whistler's fellow cadets also often sketched humorous scenes to pass the time. This drawing is now attributed to one of Whistler's peers, Francis Laurens Vinton (1835-1879) (who graduated from West Point in 1856). He was later a brigadier general on the side of the Union during the Civil War, and after the war a founding Professor of the School of Mining at Columbia College, New York.