Provenance

• 1902: bought from Whistler in May 1902 by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Full details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1396).

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. 128) as 'Writing on the Wall'.
• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 131) as 'Writing on the Wall'.

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