Provenance

• 1879: bought by Thomas Way (1837-1915), London;
• 1907: bought from his son Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) by Messrs Agnew, London art dealers, May 1907 (a/c #2223);
• 1907: sold by Agnew's to W. B. Paterson, London & Glasgow art dealer, in November 1907;
• Date unknown: acquired, probably from Paterson, by William Allan Coats (1853-1926), Paisley;
• 1926: after the death of W. A. Coats, sold with his collection by W. B. Paterson;
• 1927: bought from David Croal Thomson (1855-1930), London dealer, by E. & A. Milch, New York dealers;
• 1928: sold by them to John Gellatly (1853-1931), Washington, DC;
• 1929: given by him to the Smithsonian Institution.

After the death of Coats on 31 August 1926 his collection was put up for sale and Sketch for 'Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso Bay' [YMSM 074] was again bought by Paterson and exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists in 1927 (cat. no. 270) as 'Valparaiso Harbour'. In the same year it was bought from D. C. Thomson by E. & A. Milch; it was sold the following year to John Gellatly for $32,000.

Thomas Way and T. R. Way and Whistler's Bankruptcy, 1879.

Sketch for 'Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso Bay' [YMSM 074] was bought at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy by Thomas Way, the London printer who taught Whistler the rudiments of lithography, printed most of his lithographs and catalogues, and also bought a number of his pastels and oil paintings, and who was one of Whistler's chief creditors in 1879. He acquired thirty paintings at that time, including this painting. 1

T. R. described what happened at the time of the bankruptcy:

'all the other loose canvases which [Whistler] more or less destroyed at the time of his bankruptcy, before he handed them over as part of his "assets" to his creditors ... were rejected by the auctioneers as unsaleable ... and finally they were bought by a picture dealer for my father [Thomas Way].' 2

T. R. Way specifically named 'Cremorne Gardens', 'Venus', 'unfinished portraits of two of [Leyland's] daughters', 'a little sketch of [Leyland]', 'a white girl', the 'Loves of the Lobsters' and 'Mount Ararat'; the rest of the canvases were mostly portraits and Thomas Way 'had offered to give these portraits back to Whistler.' Altogether he probably acquired Cremorne Gardens, No. 2 [YMSM 164], Venus Rising from the Sea [YMSM 093], Portrait of Miss Leyland (1) [YMSM 109], Portrait of Miss Leyland (2) [YMSM 110], The Blue Girl: Portrait of Miss Elinor Leyland [YMSM 111], Portrait Sketch of F. R. Leyland [YMSM 096], Harmony in Grey and Peach Colour [YMSM 131], The Loves of the Lobsters [YMSM 209], and Mount Ararat [YMSM 210].

When Whistler returned from Venice in 1880, T. R. Way showed him a number of the paintings, which he had hung in his room at their house in Hampstead. Then when Whistler needed canvases for his portraits of Lady Meux about 1883 (Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux [YMSM 228], Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux [YMSM 229], and Portrait of Lady Meux in Furs [YMSM 230]) he looked at Way's canvases but found none suitable – but he may have retrieved five of the 'Six Projects' (Venus [YMSM 082] et seq) at this time as they appeared in his studio in 1881.

Others probably acquired about that time included Arrangement in Yellow and Grey: Effie Deans [YMSM 183], and Harmony in Blue and Gold [YMSM 197]), both painted long before his bankruptcy, and both exhibited in 1886.

On 31 October 1887 T. R. Way wrote to Whistler that they had cleared out a roll canvases: 'I have a large roll of old unfinished and blank Canvasses to bring you which you might like and we have been clearing out lately, (of course they are all painted by you).' 3 In November 1887 Whistler exhibited The White Symphony: Three Girls [YMSM 087] at the RBA, and in 1888, A White Note [YMSM 044] at the NEAC. Both dated from the 1860s, and their reappearance in Whistler's possession might be explained by the return of canvases by Way.

Way hung some of the remaining canvases in the firm's printing room at Wellington Street in 1892 but Whistler asked him to take them down :

'I was very much troubled, when last in Wellington Street, to see all those old destroyed paintings of mine hanging up again in the printing room!

We had got so nearly through with the matter before - Do please meanwhile take them all down and roll them up and stow away until I come over some day soon and then I can carry them off myself.' 4

A number of works painted before 1879 and sold by Whistler after 1892 (Nocturne: Battersea [YMSM 120], Nocturne: Westminster - Grey and Gold [YMSM 144], Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Battersea Reach [YMSM 152], and Nocturne: Grey and Silver [YMSM 156]) may have been retrieved at this time.

In 1896 T. R. Way and Whistler quarrelled over the publication of Way's catalogue of Whistler's lithographs. As part of the final settlement of their account, Thomas Way agreed to hold to his earlier offer of returning a number of canvases, and Whistler's lawyers, G. & W. Webb, urged Whistler to accept this offer. On 11 August 1897 the canvases were handed over, and on the following day the lawyers wrote to Whistler that they had at their office '10 large canvas portraits, 10 small canvases & 7 blank canvases.' 5

There is little evidence to show what pictures were returned by Thomas Way. Pennell wrote that a roll of six-foot canvases returned to Whistler contained the portraits of three 'Miss Leylands' (Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland [YMSM 107], Portrait of Miss Leyland (1) [YMSM 109], Portrait of Miss Leyland (2) [YMSM 110]), Portrait of Sir Henry Cole [YMSM 180], and Miss May Alexander [YMSM 127]. Whistler promptly exhibited Miss May Alexander in London and returned it to W . C. Alexander who had commissioned it some twenty-five years previously. 6

Possibly a number of other paintings that date from before 1879, and were reworked by Whistler after 1896, such as Annabel Lee [YMSM 079], or which were in his estate at his death (such as Sketch for 'The Balcony' [YMSM 057], Annabel Lee [YMSM 079], Sketch for 'Annabel Lee' [YMSM 080], Grey and Silver: The Thames [YMSM 121], Blue and Silver: Screen, with Old Battersea Bridge [YMSM 139], Nocturne [YMSM 172], and Harmony in Flesh Colour and Black: Portrait of Mrs Louise Jopling [YMSM 191]), made up the balance of the paintings returned by Way to Whistler.

Thomas Way clearly did not return all the paintings that he had bought at the time of the bankruptcy. Some had been given to his son and were sold by T. R. Way after Whistler's death (Sketch for 'Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso Bay' [YMSM 074], Study of a Female Figure [YMSM 081], Venus Rising from the Sea [YMSM 093], Cremorne Gardens, No. 2 [YMSM 164], Portrait Sketch of a Lady [YMSM 184], and possibly Maud Franklin [YMSM 132]).

Exhibitions

• It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.