Provenance

• 1903: sold by Whistler to Richard Albert Canfield (1855-1914) , Providence, RI, on 8 May 1903;
• 1914: bought by Knoedler, New York art dealers, 12 March, and sold to Mrs Nelson Robinson, New York.
• 1949: bought from a private collection by Knoedler, New York dealers, (a/c #3362), and sold to John Lionberger Davis (1878-1973), St Louis, on 28 November 1949.

There were three generations of Nelson Robinsons. Mrs Robinson may have been Eliza Rushmore Seney (b. ca 1855) the widow of Nelson Robinson jr (1878-1899).

John Lionberger Davis, lawyer, banker and art collector, died in Princeton, New Jersey. He and his wife Julie Marie Victor (1877-1955) had four children, Marion Lionburger Davis (1907-1993), Anne Vietor Davis (1908-1994), George Victor Davis (1910-1985), and John Lionberger Davis II (1915-1966). He left an important and eclectic collection of art to the St Louis Art Museum.

Exhibitions

• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 98) as 'Violet and Silver "The Afternoon Dream".'