Provenance

• 1884/1886: bought through Messrs Dowdeswell, London dealers, by Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934) , London;
• 1902: bought in June by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) , Detroit;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 925).

Exhibitions

• 1884: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 20) as 'Pink note – Shelling Peas'.

Reviews were mostly favourable, including an article by Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921) on ‘Mr Whistler's Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Gray’ in The Academy, 1 and other comments in the Standard, 19 May 1884; Morning Post, 24 May 1884, and by Malcolm Charles Salaman (1855-1940) in the Kensington News, 29 May 1884.

By the terms of Freer's will, this work cannot be lent to another venue.