By the end of her stay in Paris, Watkins was widely admired for her sensitive portrayals of women and adolescent girls. A Young Girl, her final portrait, depicts the daughter of Walter S. Martin of California (and granddaughter of Senator William A. Clark of Montana) posing informally on the arm of a chair. Both the unusual, asymmetrical composition, with the girl placed at left and the "void" of the empty chair taking center stage, and the sitter's precarious perch imply impermanence and instability, as though the subject might decide at any moment that the sitting is over and playfully bolt from the room. Watkins' image of early 20th-century childhood seems surprisingly modern, especially when compared to the decorous and conventional 1830 Girl (at far right), painted only ten years before. The informal composition and the chair's vigorously painted floral print suggest new aesthetic directions for the 35-year-old artist. In fact, the painting would be one of her last. [http://collection.chrysler.org/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/search$0040/2/title-asc?t:state:flow=5412b799-de67-40ad-a493-48705dbb0b20]