Provenance

• 1876/1878: given to Murray Marks (1840-1918), London art dealer;
• 1879/1883: possibly among drawings sold at auction, Christie's, London, 7 February 1879 (lots 527-33) or one of 'three sketches' sold at Sotheby's, London, 19 February 1883 (lot 366), and bought by Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930).
• 1907: Obach & Co, London dealers, sold six drawings to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, on 22 October 1907; 1
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 590).

Exhibitions

• 1878: A Catalogue of Blue and White Porcelain forming the collection of Sir Henry Thompson, Murray Marks gallery, London, 1878.
• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. nos. 156-161) as 'Illustrations to Sir Henry Thompson's catalogue of his Collection of Blue and White Nankin Porcelain, 1878.'

The porcelain, the final drawings, and the newly published catalogue, were exhibited in Murray Marks's shop in London, the private view being held on 30 April 1878

It is not known whether the drawings shown in 1905 were preparatory or final drawings.

By the terms of Freer's will, this drawing cannot be lent to another venue.