Provenance

• Date unknown: said to have been given by Whistler to Elizabeth Carolina Hughes, Mrs W. J. Stevens (d. 1900) , Chelsea;
• By 1900; given by Mrs Stevens to her daughter Janet Elizabeth Eason, née Hughes (1853-1928) , Parson's Green, London;
• 1904?: sold by Mrs Eason to Obach, London art dealers;
• 1904: bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) , Detroit, in May 1904;
• 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Whistler's ward and executrix Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) understood that it was 'given by Whistler in payment of a grocer's account. The grocer and wine merchant married the daughter of a Mrs. Carolina Stevens who was of good family. Her name was Mrs. Eason, of 76 Cheyne Walk and she sold the picture.' 1 This is not entirely accurate, but helps to confirm the identity of the earliest owners.

Whistler lived at 2 Lindsey Row (96 Cheyne Walk) until 1878, 21 Cheyne Walk from 1890-1892, and 72 Cheyne Walk from 1902 until his death in 1903. Walter Greaves (1846-1930) and family lived further along the row, at No. 31.

In 1850, William John Stevens (b. ca 1822) married Elizabeth Caroline Hughes. In 1881, the UK census records William John Stevens, aged 59, grocer, and his wife Elizabeth Caroline, aged 56, living at 76 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. Their daughter Janet was born in Chelsea in 1853. By 1891, the widowed Elizabeth Carolina Stevens, her age given as 68, was living with her daughter, Janet Elizabeth Eason, aged 36, and son-in-law Samuel Eason, merchant's clerk, aged 39, and their children Harry John (13) and Alfred (7) at 156 Beaufort Street in Chelsea. The death of Elizabeth Carolina Stevens is recorded in Fulham in 1900. By the following year, at the time of the 1901 UK census, Samuel Eason and his wife Janet and family were living at 15 Crondace Road in South Fulham, London. Janet Elizabeth Eason died on 20 July 1928. 2

Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), who bought the painting in 1904, recorded that it was given by Whistler 'in discharge of debt' to a lady who had posed for Whistler, and who gave the painting to her daughter 'Mrs. Eason, Crondace Rd, Parson's Green.' 3 There is no record of Elizabeth Carolina (or Caroline) Stevens (or Hughes) posing for Whistler, but it is not impossible. It is also entirely possible that the painting was given to her husband, the grocer, in payment of debts at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy. It is also likely, but not certain, that it passed to Mrs Eason on her mother's death in 1900.

What is certain is that Mrs Eason sold the painting to Obach, London dealers, and they sold it to C. L. Freer in May 1904 for about £2000, as part of the deal to purchase Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room [YMSM 178].

Exhibitions

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

By the terms of C. L. Freer's bequest to the Freer Gallery of Art, the painting cannot be lent.