Provenance

• 1857: commissioned by Charles Phelps Williams (1804-1879) , Stonington, Connecticut;
• 1858: sent from Paris to C. P. Williams in Stonington;
• 1879 and 1910: passed by family descent from C. P. Williams (who died in 1879), and his wife Georgia Palmer Babcock (Mrs C. P. Williams) (1837–1910) , to their nephew, Henry ('Harry') Saltenstall Babcock (1882-1949) , also of Stonington;
• 1939: sold through A. R. Blanchard, agent, to Benjamin Flayderman (1896-1975) on 9 December 1939;
• 1975: beqeathed to his son, E. Norman Flayderman (1928-2013) , an arms and militaria dealer;
• 2005: bought by Warren Adelson (n/a) , New York art dealer;
• 2010: given by Warren Adelsen to the Lunder Collection, Colby College Museum of Art. 1

Whistler's account of his commission from C. P. Williams is as follows:

'Then in Paris, when I was first studying, Captain Williams from Stonington, Stonington Bill they called him, got me to paint his portrait, and then gave me a commission to copy as many pictures as I chose for twenty-five dollars a piece, and I copied a picture, I cannot remember whom it was by, of a snow scene, with a horse and a soldier standing by it and another in the snow at his feet; a second of St. Luke, with his halo and draperies; a third of a woman holding up a child toward a barred window and a man seen looking through the bars; and a fourth of an inundation. I have no doubt I made something very interesting out of them. There were very wonderful things even then, the beginning of harmonies and purple schemes. I suppose it must have been intuitive. … Probably all these are still at Stonington and are shown as wonderful things by Whistler!' 2

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.