Provenance

• By 1903: owned by Mrs Charles Julius Kino/Knowles (née Louisa Essinger) (b.1850, m.1874) , Kensington Gore, London;
• Date unknown: passed to her son, Guy John Fenton Kino or Knowles (1879-1959) ;
• 1959: bequeathed to the Fitzwilliam Museum.

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 494).

Exhibitions

• 1903-1904: possibly Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 33) as 'Study for a Background'.
• 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. 162) as 'Design for Matting'.

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.