Provenance

• 1910: acquired by Henry Harper Benedict (1844-1935) ;
• 1935: bequeathed to his widow Katherine Geddes Benedict (1879-1961) and daughter Josephine Katherine Benedict, Mrs James Douglass Sharpe (ca 1918-1946), New York;
• 1962: sold at auction, Benedict estate sale, Sotheby's, London, 21 November 1962 (lot 2, repr.), and bought by Julius H. Weitzner (1896-1986) , art dealer.
• 1971?: bought from Charles Carr, New York, by the Avnet estate;
• 1972: the property of the late Lester Avnet (1912-1970), Joan Avnet (d. 1994) and the Avnet Trust, sold at auction, Christie's, London, 10 March 1972 (lot 99) as 'Studies of Fans', bought by 'Hernshaw'.
• 1980: consigned by a New York museum for sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 4 December 1980 (lot 5, repr.) as 'Fans and Figures', and bought by a private collector.
• 1987: on deposit with Hirschl and Adler, New York;
• 1987: in a private collection in Palm Beach, Florida in May 1987;
• 1988: sent to auction, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 25 May 1988 (lot 63, repr.) as 'Fan and Figure Studies' but withdrawn.

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 427).

Exhibitions

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