Provenance

• 1904: probably sold from the collection of Mrs Slade, at auction, Christie's, London, 12 March 1904 (lot 105) as 'Waiting for the fishing boats' and bought by William Stephen Marchant (1868-1925), London art dealer.
• By 1914: owned by Richard Albert Canfield (1855-1914), of Providence, Rhode Island;
• 1914: bought on 12 March by Knoedler's, New York art dealers;
• 1915: sold in March sold to Charles S. Carstairs (1865-1928), New York art dealer.
• 1972: sold from the collection of Richard Campbell Esq., at auction, Christie's, London, 19 December 1972 (lot 58) and bought by Basket & Day, London dealers, for Paul Mellon (1907-1999), Washington, DC;
• 1991: given by Paul and Mrs Rachel Lambert Mellon (1910-2014) to the National Gallery of Art in honour of its 50th anniversary.

For further details see MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1036).

Exhibitions

It is likely that it was exhibited at 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 or 1886 but if so, it has not been identified.