Provenance

• 1879: probably acquired at Whistler's bankruptcy by Thomas Way (1837-1915), London;
• By 1892: returned to Whistler;
• 1903: bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, in July 1903 for £1000;
• 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Exhibitions

• 1874: Mr Whistler's Exhibition, Flemish Gallery, 48 Pall Mall, London, 1874.
• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 20) as 'Symphony in White and Red'.
• 1904: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 14) as 'No. 4 Symphony in White and Red'.

It was probably shown in the Pall Mall exhibition of 1874 and described by an art critic simply as one of two paintings 'neither of which reveal to us their subject with sufficient clearness. We just perceive a fascination of dimly suggested scheme of colour, and note here and there a graceful attitude defining itself from the obscurity of the general mist.' 1

Whistler Memorial Exhibition, Boston, 1904, GUL Whistler PH6/21

C. L. Freer lent the painting to exhibitions in his lifetime, including the Boston exhibition of 1904, where the 'Projects' were exhibited together, as shown in the photograph reproduced above. However, by the terms of Freer's bequest to the Freer Gallery of Art, the painting cannot now be lent to any other venue.