Provenance

• 1880/1885: sold by Whistler to Lucas (Luke) Alexander Ionides (1837-1924) ;
• 1900/1905: sold to an art dealer.

According to Lucas (Luke) Alexander Ionides (1837-1924),

'In the early eighties he [Whistler] came to me one day bringing a picture, and offered it to me for £30. I bought it, and some twenty years after, when I needed money, I sold it for £150.' 1

He sold it to a dealer who showed it to the Duchess of Edinburgh, and she greatly admired it, although the dealer's assistant had placed it on the easel upside down: according to Ionides, this painting, 'A Symphony in grey and gold' was later sold for £5000. 2

This painting may actually be Nocturne: Westminster - Grey and Gold [YMSM 144] but the evidence is not conclusive.

Given Whistler's money problems in the 1870s, it is possible that the first sale took place around 1878 rather than in the early 1880s. In fact, it could be the 'little Nocturne' sold by Whistler to Luke Ionides for £15, according to Whistler, and which he offered to resell, for a share of the profits, to Lord Archibald Campbell (1846-1913) on 5 December 1878. 3 But since Whistler's statements do not exactly match the story told by Ionides it seems more likely that Ionides in fact bought two Nocturnes from Whistler (see Nocturne in Grey and Gold [YMSM 155] and also Nocturne: Grey and Silver [YMSM 156].

Exhibitions

• There is no record of an exhibition.