Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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Portrait of M. R. Elden (3)

Provenance

  • 1883/1886: acquired from the artist by Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942);
  • 1905: sold by Sickert to Edgar J. Hesslein (1864-1938), New York.
  • Date unknown: bought through Kennedy, New York dealer, by Henry Harper Benedict (1844-1935), New York;
  • 1935: after his death on 12 June 1935, passed to his widow, Katherine Geddes Benedict (1879-1961);
  • 1946: sold by her through William Macbeth, New York dealers, to Mrs Carolyn Hotchkiss, later Carolyn Glendenin Foulke (née Ryan) (1910-1987), New York and (in the 1960s) Florida;
  • 1987: sold to a private collection.

According to a statement pasted on the back and signed by Walter Sickert, he sold it on 12 August 1905. Apparently some years later Pennell suggested that the picture was by Walter Greaves (1846-1930), which Sickert vigorously denied, saying that he had obtained it directly from Whistler and sold it to Hesslein. 1

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Notes:

1: Sickert, Walter, Letter to editor, 'The Works of Whistler', The New Age, 29 February 1912.

Last updated: 8th November 2019 by Margaret