Provenance

• 1884 /1886: bought from Messrs Dowdewell by Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934);
• 1902: bought in June by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

See details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 900).

Exhibitions

• 1884: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 16) as 'Pink note – The Novelette'.
• 1884: Annual Exhibition of Sketches, Pictures & Photography: A Loan Collection of Pictures by Mr Whistler ..., Dublin Sketching Club, Dublin, 1884 (cat. no. 239) as 'Pink note – The Novelette'.
• 1887: Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887 (cat. no. 166) as 'Rose et gris: Le Roman'.

Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921) mentioned this watercolour in a review of the show. 1 Other reviews of the Dowdeswell show appeared in the Standard, 19 May 1884 and the Kensington News, 29 May 1884, followed by references in the Irish papers, the Irish Times and Dublin Daily Express on 1 December 1884 (the latter commending Whistler's 'undoubted ability' in depicting figures).

By the terms of Freer's will the work cannot be lent to another venue.