Provenance

• Unknown.

Whistler suspected that Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890) and Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) had conspired to remove several paintings from the White House (The Three Girls [YMSM 088], The Blue Girl: Portrait of Connie Gilchrist [YMSM 207], The Loves of the Lobsters [YMSM 209], and Mount Ararat [YMSM 210]) and he suggested that the Receiver appointed by the Bankruptcy Court, James Waddell (1838-1892), should be taken by Whistler's brother, William McNeill Whistler (1836-1900), to his house in Wimpole Street,

'show him the blue Girl and explain that this with the other rags and destroyed canvasses were left in the studio and brought finally to you by his [Waddell's] direction or permission - but he will want nothing of the kind though it is at his disposal, if you clearly make him understand that this is not the blue Girl missing - Connie Gilchrist in blue - in short, that these are not the pictures he is after.' 1

By 'Connie Gilchrist in blue' he meant The Blue Girl: Portrait of Connie Gilchrist [YMSM 207], and the other two were Pink and Grey: Three Figures [YMSM 089], and the painting under discussion here, The Blue Girl: Maud Franklin. It is not known what happened to it.

Exhibitions

Unknown.