Provenance

• 1852/1853: probably given by Whistler to his half-brother George William Whistler (1822-1869) and passed by family descent to his son George Delano Whistler (1880-1937) .
• 1927: sold by O. Grassmann, Lausanne, at Christie's, London, 29 July 1927 (lot 255) as 'A Country Church', with A country house [M.0101], and bought by R. Parsons, 13 gns.;
• 1929: included in Parsons' sale catalogue, London, 1929 (cat. no. 589).
• 1954: bought with the Pennell Fund for the Library of Congress.

It is not certain when or how G. D. Whistler acquired the drawing, although it has been suggested that it was given by Whistler directly to him; see MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 100). Parsons' 1929 sale catalogue is in the Witt collection, Courtauld Institute, London.