Provenance

• 1879: bought by Thomas Way (1837-1915), London;
• 1897?: returned to Whistler.

According to the Pennells, it was one of the 'large six-foot full-length portraits' bought by one of Whistler's chief creditors, the lithographic printer Thomas Way, after Whistler's bankruptcy in 1879, and returned to Whistler later. 1 It may have been among the '10 large canvas portraits, 10 small canvases & 7 blank canvases' returned to the artist at the time of Way's final settlement with Whistler in August 1897. 2 Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), the artist's executrix, told the Pennells that it was burned. 3

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.