Provenance

• 1888/1890: signed by Whistler, possibly for a collector or art dealer unknown.
• By 1905: owned by Laurence W. Hodson (1864-1933) , Compton Hall, Wolverhampton;
• 1906: sold at auction, Christie's, London, 25 June 1906 (lot 136) bought by Agnew's or Colnaghi's, London dealers.
• Before 1936: possibly owned at some time by 'C. Rothenstein'.
• 1940s: possibly owned at some time by Henry Ruben Ickelheimer (1868-1940) or his wife Pauline Ickelheimer née Lehman (1893-1961), New York.
• Before 1986: it had been owned at some time, according to Sotheby's, 1986, by Mrs Harry Baird, New York;
• 1986: bought at Sotheby's, New York, 29 May 1986 (lot 142) by Mrs Carroll Petrie (d. 2015);
• 2006: sold at Sotheby's, New York, 1 March 2006 (lot 9).
• 2011: given by Peter H. Lunder (b. 1933) and Paula Crane Lunder (b. 1935) to Colby College Museum of Art.

The early provenance is unknown and the later provenance has some gaps. The Pennells mistakenly stated that it was still owned by Hodson in 1908. 1 However, a photograph in the Pennell Collection, Library of Congress, is annotated 'C. Rothenstein', who has not been identified.

Joseph Whistler Revillon (1886-1955) made notes on a drawing of 'Nelly', probably this, and suggested that it was owned by 'Ickenheimer' or 'Ickleheimer'. Revillon was certainly in touch with Pauline Lehman, wife of Henry R. Ickelheimer of Heidelbach, Ickelheimer & Co., New York, but there is no verification of this. 2

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 337); this record has been amended and updated.

Exhibitions

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