Ethel was a secretary to Whistler who used Ethel as a model for a number of full-length portraits painted during the period 1888 to the mid-1890s.
Her sister Beatrice (also called 'Beatrix' or 'Trixie') married James McNeill Whistler in 1888, following the death of her first husband Edward William Godwin.
In 1896 Ethel married the writer Charles Whibley.
Her sister Rosalind Birnie Philip (b.
1873) subsequently acted as secretary to Whistler and was appointed Whistler's executrix at his death.