Provenance

• 1879: bought for Thomas Way (1837-1915), London;
• 1878/1915: given to his son Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), London.
• 1939: bequeathed by Hunt Henderson (1869-1939), New Orleans, to Tulane University, New Orleans;
• 1941: sold by them through the Macdonald Gallery, New York, to Grenville Lindell Winthrop (1864-1943), New York, April 1941;
• 1943: bequeathed by him to the Fogg Art Museum.

At the time of Whistler's bankruptcy it was bought by a picture dealer on behalf of the London printer Thomas Way, and given to his son, T. R. Way, who made a colour lithograph of it (The Hunterian, Glasgow). It is not known when T. R. Way sold it, nor when and where Hunt Henderson bought it.

Exhibitions

It is possible that in its original state this was exhibited as a full length portrait, but in its cut-down and rubbed-down state it was certainly not exhibited.