Provenance

• 1898: probably owned by Charles Alva Walker (1848-1925), Boston.
• By 1904: Francis Bartlett (1836-1913), Boston;
• 1913: bequeathed to his son-in-law Herbert Montgomery Sears (d. 1942), Boston;
• 1942: sold at auction, Parke-Bernet, New York, 17 October 1942 (lot 137) as 'Mr. Graves, Printseller', and bought by Miss A. Linch (fl. 1942);
• 1943: Fred W. Schumacher (1863-1957?);
• 1957: bequeathed to the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts.

According to the auction catalogue of 1942 it was owned in 1898 by 'Charles A. Walker' of Boston, MA. This was probably Charles Alva Walker (1848-1925), painter, etcher and engraver, a member of the Boston Art Club, the Copley Society (Boston) and the London Print Sellers Association. He is said to have invented the term 'monotype' around 1880 and, together with Whistler's friend Otto Henry Bacher (1856-1909) and William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) and others, established a 'Monotype Club' in New York in the 1880s. He also advised several major collectors in building up their collections. 1

Study of a Head [YMSM 427] was lent by the lawyer Francis Bartlett, trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, to the Whistler memorial exhibition in Boston in 1904 (cat. no. 52). On Bartlett's death in 1913, it passed to his son-in-law, Herbert M. Sears, also of Boston. 2 At his death in February 1942, it was sold at auction at Parke-Bernet, 17 October 1942 (lot 137) as 'Mr. Graves, Printseller', and bought by Miss A. Linch for $1750. She sold it to Fred W. Schumacher, who lent it from 1943 to the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Ohio, to which he bequeathed it in June 1957.

Exhibitions

• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 52) as 'Study of a Head'.

No exhibition in Whistler's lifetime has been identified.