Provenance

• 1903: bought from Whistler by Blanche Marchesi (1863-1940) , who married (1) Baron Alexander Popper von Podhragy and (2) André Anzon, Baron Caccamisi (m. 1894);
• 1914: sold at auction, collection of Andre Anzon, Baron Caccamisi (b. ca 1856) , Christie's, London, 6 February 1914 (lot 141) as 'Bleu et Violet, La Belle de Jour', bought by Knoedler's, New York dealers, for £273;
• 1914: sold by them to Hunt Henderson (1869-1939) , New Orleans, 17 November 1914;
• 1939: bequeathed to Tulane University, New Orleans;
• 1941: sold by Tulane through the Macdonald Gallery, New York, to Grenville Lindell Winthrop (1864-1943) , New York, April 1941;
• 1943: bequeathed by him to the Fogg Art Museum.

It was bought from Whistler by the singer Mme Blanche Marchesi in February 1903, for 150 guineas, as 'Violet & Rose "La Belle du Jour".' 1 According to Mme Marchesi, 'We really had to push his hand to sell it to us. He told us that he wanted to paint the face a little more but the model vanished.' 2

It was sold by her second husband Baron André Anzon Caccamisi (not Caccamini as previously stated) in 1914. The photograph above probably dates from that time.

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. 57) as 'Belle à jour, Blue and Violet'.

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