Provenance

• By 1905: Douglas William Freshfield (1845-1934), London;
• 1934: after his death, sold at auction, Christie's, London, 2 November 1934 (lot 87) 'Dieppe Beach', bought by the art dealer David Croal Thomson (1855-1930), Barbizon House, London;
• 1934/1935: sold by Thomson to Levy Galleries, art dealers, New York;
• 1935: sold by Levy to Leo M. Flesh (1863-1944) of Piqua, Ohio.
• Date unknown: Newhouse Gallery, art dealers, New York.
• Date unknown: Adele Lewisohn (Mrs Arthur Lehman) (1882-1965), New York;
• 1865?: passed to her daughter Dorothy Lehman (Mrs Richard Bernhardt (1903-1969), New York;
• By 1976: The Bernhard Foundation, New York;
• 1976: sold at auction, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 29 April 1976 (lot 108) and bought by Agnew's, London art dealers;
• 1976: sold by Agnew's to a private collector;
• 2010/2012: sold through Thomas Colville Fine Art, New York;
• 2012: sold at auction, Sotheby's, New York, 23 April 2012 (lot 108);
• 2013/2015: Promised Gift to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas.

Whistler owned 'Beach dieppe The Evening Walk, Dieppe' when D. C. Thomson reproduced it in 1897. 1 By 1905 it was owned by the explorer, Douglas Freshfield, who lent it to the Whistler Memorial exhibition in London in 1905 (cat. no. 72). It was auctioned by him at Christie's in 1934 and bought by D. C. Thomson, for £168. He sold it to the Levy Galleries, who sold it to Leo. M. Flesh. 2

The sequence and dates of later ownership are unclear: it was owned by the Newhouse Gallery, and Mrs Arthur Lehman; by Mrs Richard I. Bernhard, New York, and the Bernhard Foundation; they sent it to auction at Sotheby Parke-Bernet in 1976. It was bought by Agnew's, London dealers, who sold it to a private collector in the UK. It was sold through Thomas Colville Fine Arts, New York and New Haven, to the present owners.

Exhibitions

• 1897: probably intended to be shown in Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 7th exhibition, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Champs de Mars, Paris, 1897 (cat. no. 1257) as 'Vert et violet' but ultimately not shown. 3
• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 72) as 'Dieppe'.

It had been suggested that this was possibly exhibited in Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887 (cat. no. 186) as 'Vert et violet: Dieppe' (see Vert et violet: Dieppe [YMSM 329]) because it was assumed it had been painted in 1885. 4 However, the signature suggests a later date.