Resting may date from between January and March 1898. This date is based on the sole record of the painting, when it was exhibited by Whistler in A Collection of Selected Works by Painters of the English, French & Dutch Schools, Goupil Gallery, London, 1898 (cat. no. 23).

It is possible that this may be the same as The Little White Sofa [YMSM 258], which was originally dated to the mid-1880s, but is now considered, mainly on the basis of the signature, to date from 1898, and was bought by Alexander Arnold Hannay (1858-1927) in 1898 or 1899.