Provenance

• 1878: possibly owned by Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890), London;
• Before 1890: possibly bought from Howell by Alfred Wurhaft (d. ca 1917), a money-lender, London;
• ca 1917: Alfred Wurhaft died in St Petersburg, Russia, and bequeathed the painting to his nephew, Dr Maximilian Wurhaft (b. 1888), Brooklyn, NJ;
• 1920s: sold to J. W. Young (dates unknown), Chicago art dealer;
• 1929: sold to Charles Finn Williams (1934-1952), Cincinnati, OH, in October 1929;
• 1952: bequeathed in September 1952 to his son, James R. Williams (dates unknown);
• 1963: bought by Wunderlich, New York dealers;
• 1963: sold to the Herron Museum Alliance, Indianapolis, in May 1963;
• 1963: given to the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

According to the Pennells, C. A. Howell bought five paintings from Whistler on 22 February 1878 for £50, including 'a small framed Nocturne, Battersea', which was probably Nocturne [YMSM 114] or Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Battersea Reach [YMSM 119]. 1

Most of the early history of Nocturne [YMSM 114] derives from the sworn testimony of Dr Maximilian Wurhaft of Brooklyn, made on 31 October 1929 in New York. 2 According to him, the painting was secured from Whistler by Howell in the 1870s or 1880s and sold to Wurhaft's uncle Alfred, a money-lender, then living in London. After Wurhaft's death in St Petersburg during the Russian revolution, about 1917, his estate was settled through Probate Courts in Oslo, Norway, and the nocturne was inherited by the said Dr Maximilian Wurhaft. He then sold it to J. W. Young in Chicago, who sold it to C. F. Williams in 1929, whose son, J. R. Williams inherited it. 3 It was later bought by Wunderlich's, New York, who sold it to the Herron Museum Alliance in May 1963, and it was given by them to the Indianapolis Museum of Art later in the same year.

Exhibitions

• No exhibition in Whistler's lifetime has been identified.