Provenance

• 1890/1905: bought by Charles Conder (1868-1909) .
• 1890/1918: with Galerie Levesque, Paris, at some time.
• 1919: sold by Percy Moore Turner (1877-1950) , London, to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) , Detroit, for $12,517.50;
• 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

In November 1877 Whistler offered 'two Cremornes' to Alfred Chapman (1839-1917) for £80, and Chapman agreed to purchase one, Cremorne [YMSM 168], which was either sold or delivered to him by Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890) in November 1877. 1 Unfortunately it is not certain what these were.

Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3 [YMSM 165]was bought by the Australian born artist Charles Conder (1868-1909) , either after 1890 when he arrived in Paris, or after 1894 in London, and was lent by him to the Whistler Memorial exhibition in London in 1905.

Exhibitions

• 1888: Probably III. Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung, Königlicher Glaspalast, Munich, 1888 (cat. no. 56) as 'Nachtstück in Schwarz und Gold: Cremorne'.
• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 50) as 'Nocturne, Cremorne Gardens, No. 3'.

In Whistler's list of paintings for Munich the size of the painting 'Nachtstück in Schwarz und Gold: Cremorne' was given as 85 x 70 cm framed, and it was valued at £500. 2 The frames are estimated at between 20 and 25 cm on average. When this size is compared with the sizes given for Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel [YMSM 169] and Nocturne: Grey and Gold - Chelsea Snow [YMSM 174] (106 x 83 and 85 x 69 cm framed, respectively), and to the other Cremorne canvases, Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3 [YMSM 165] is the only one that corresponds to these dimensions.

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