Provenance

• 1894/1895: possibly given by the artist to Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942).

Sickert recorded that Whistler nearly finished a portrait of Mrs Walter Cave which he had begun, and gave it to Sickert, 'in a then fit of good humour', with two other canvases (Head of Mrs Beaumont [YMSM 430] and possibly Head of a Girl [YMSM 432]). 1 According to Sickert, it was subsequently lost, or, in William Rothenstein's opinion, completed and sold by Whistler 'as a work of his own.' 2

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.