Provenance

• 1884: bought from Messrs Dowdeswell by Isaac Lennox Browne (1841-1902) , throat specialist, London, 25 October 1884;
• Before 1888: acquired by John McIntyre (1859-1928) , nose and throat specialist, Glasgow;
• 1928: sold at auction, McLellan Galleries, Glasgow, 1929;
• 1929: Alexander Reid (1854-1928) , Glasgow, and Knoedler's, New York, held joint ownership from 6 June 1929;
• 1929: sold to Daniel Haddock Carstairs (b. 1862), Germantown, PA, October 1929;
• 1933: returned and sold in July by Knoedler's to Arthur Ronald Lambert Field Tree (1897-1976);
• 1976: bequeathed to a private collector.

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 903).

Exhibitions

• 1884: probably 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 13) as 'Petit Déjeuner; note in opal'.
• 1899: Thirty-eighth Exhibition of Works of Modern Artists, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Glasgow, 1899 (cat. no. 538) as 'Convalescent'.
• 1903: Spring Exhibition, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 214, repr.).
• 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. 48, repr.) as 'The Convalescent'.

The Daily News of 21 May 1884 commented that 'A fine frowsiness is delicately conveyed'. Reviewers included Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921) and Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942). 1