Provenance

• 1870s: commissioned by Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892);
• 1879: bought by Thomas Way (1837-1915), London, at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy;
• 1897: probably returned to Whistler.

The Pennells reported Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) as saying that an oil sketch on canvas was one of 'three Miss Leylands' among the 'six-foot full-length portraits' acquired by his father, the London printer Thomas Way, at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy in 1879 and returned to him much later. 1 According to T. R. Way, Portrait of Miss Leyland (1) [YMSM 109] was 'more or less destroyed' by Whistler, and was one of two portraits of Leyland's daughters painted 'in a very high key', which were bought, after Leyland refused to take them, by a picture dealer on behalf of Thomas Way Sr. 2 T. R. Way hung them in his rooms until Whistler asked him to take them down. Portrait of Miss Leyland (1) [YMSM 109] was presumably one of the portraits that Thomas Way offered to return to Whistler, and may have been returned at the time of his final settlement with Whistler in 1897, which included '10 large canvas portraits, 10 small canvases & 7 blank canvases.' 3

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.