Provenance

• 1853/1855: probably given to Whistler's brother William McNeill Whistler (1836-1900) ;
• 1900: bequeathed to his wife, Helen ('Nellie') Euphrosyne Whistler (1849-1917) ;
• 1905: offered through Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) , who bought it on 29 November;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 145).

Exhibitions

• 1903: 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. 88) as 'Sam Weller's Landlord in the Fleet'.
• 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. 155) as 'Sam Weller's Lodging in the Fleet Prison'.