Provenance

• Before 1904: James Staats Forbes (1823-1904), London;
• 1904: placed by his executors on deposit at Obach, London dealers.
• 1907: bought from Brown & Phillips or the Leicester Galleries, London dealers, by the Macbeth Galleries, New York;
• 1909: bought from Macbeth by Worcester Art Museum, MA;
• 1925: sold by Worcester Art Museum to John Levy Galleries, New York;
• 1934: passed to J. J. Gillespie Galleries, Pittsburgh, who sold it to Richard V. Nuttall (ca 1891-d.1956) and his wife, Martha Nuttall (Mrs R. V. Nuttall (b. ca 1892), Pittsburgh;
• 1952: sold by them at auction, Parke-Bernet, New York, 21 May 1952 (lot 38) as 'The Widow', and bought by Dr William S. Serri (1911-1995?), Swedesboro, New Jersey;
• 1979: sold by him to Dr John Larkin (n/a), White Bear Lake, Minnesota;
• Date unknown: sold through New York art dealers and the Fine Art Society, London, to a private collector.

In June 1904 Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) of Detroit saw a 'Womans Head – oval' from the collection of James Staats Forbes, which was probably this painting, with Obach & Co., but left no offer for it. 1 It was lent by Forbes' executors to the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in London in 1905. It was bought either from Brown & Phillips or the Leicester Galleries (Parke-Bernet thought the latter) by the Macbeth Galleries on 21 June 1907. After long consideration it was bought by the Worcester Art Museum on 2 January 1909. 2 The Museum sold it in part exchange to the John Levy Galleries in 1925. It was then passed to J. J. Gillespie Galleries, Pittsburgh, who sold it to Mr and Mrs Richard V. Nuttall in January 1934. It was bought from Parke-Bernet, 21 May 1952 (lot 38), by Dr William S. Serri for $1350 and sold by him to Dr John Larkin in 1979.

Exhibitions

• 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. 1) as 'The Widow'.

The Pall Mall Gazette, comparing two of the paintings from the collection of the late Staats Forbes, 'The Widow' and The Girl in Red [YMSM 312], considered 'The Widow', 'the least secure'. 3