Provenance

• 1896: sold by Whistler to Alexander Arnold Hannay (1858-1927).
• Date unknown: John Levy Gallery, New York.
• 1940s: Mrs Florence Wickham Lueder (1880-1962);
• 1960: bought from her by Hirschl & Adler, New York art dealers, February 1960;
• 1960: sold by them to Charles Kohlmeyer (1909-1988) in June 1960;
• 1988: bequeathed to his widow, Janet Lauer Kohlmeyer (1910-1991), Metairie, Louisiana;
• 1991: sold at auction, Christie's, New York, 22 May 1991 (lot 248).

In a letter from 4 Whitehall Court to Ernest Brown of The Fine Art Society, Whistler wrote, 'These two particular little pictures are gone - I mean the Girl on the Sofa and the old woman and child in the doorway.' 1 The purchaser was A. Arnold Hannay, London, who lent the shopfront to an exhibition in Dublin in 1899 (cat. no. 82) as 'A shop', the owner being named in the catalogue as 'A. N. Hannay'.

Although the painting is believed to be in a private collection, the identity of the current owner is, at this point (2020) unknown.

Exhibitions

• 1899: A Loan Collection of Modern Paintings, Leinster Hall, Dublin, 1899 (cat. no. 82) as 'A shop'.