Provenance

• 1877/1878: deposited on Whistler's behalf by Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890) with Jane Noseda (1814-ca 1894), London, as security for a loan;
• 1878/1879?: possibly bought by Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890) and deposited with H. Graves & Co., London, as security for a loan;
• 1880/1884?: interest on the loan from Messrs Graves was transferred to Whistler;
• 1888/1890: Whistler paid back his debt to Graves and recovered the painting;
• 1892: for sale at several venues including Messrs Goupil, London;
• 1892: sold by Whistler to Alexander Reid (1854-1928) , art dealer, Glasgow.
• 1898: bought by William Burrell (1861-1958) , Glasgow;
• 1909: sold by Burrell to Obach & Co., London art dealers;
• 1909: bought from Obach's by the Macbeth Galleries, New York;
• 1909/1910: sold by Macbeth to the Worcester Art Museum.

During preparations for the Whistler v. Ruskin trial in 1878, this portrait, under the title 'Arrangement in Brown', was, according to Whistler, 'in the possession of Mrs Noseda No. 109 Strand.' 1 Another draft of this statement adds that Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket [YMSM 170] (the focus of Ruskin's criticism of Whistler) and the 'Arrangement in Brown',

' … are in the possession of Mrs Noseda Printseller of the Strand with several other pictures upon which she has advanced a sum of money to me [They were so deposited with Mrs Noseda for such advance by Mr Charles Augustus Howell a friend of Mr Whistlers & as between Howell & Mrs Noseda they appear to be Mr Howells property] & so far as I know they are still in her possession at her Shop in the Strand aforesaid.' 2

The solicitor, James Anderson Rose (1819-1890), drafted a 'Memorandum' that stated:

'This Picture was not priced or for sale at the Exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery - It is now in the hands of Mrs Noseda in pledge for advances but no doubt she would allow inspection & produce or allow the Picture to be produced at the trial.' 3

And indeed the paintings were shown to the court, according to records of the examination of Whistler on 25 November 1878. 4 However, the portrait – described as a painting of 'Miss Franklin', later identified as Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket [YMSM 181] – must have been retrieved from Mrs Noseda not long afterwards, and instead deposited by Howell with the firm of H. Graves & Co. 5 It was acting, as before, as temporary security for a loan. Some years later Algernon Graves (1845-1922) mentioned that Howell had paid 10% interest but they were only charging Whistler 5% interest, and not compound interest. 6 This might suggest that it was owned briefly by Howell, possibly to avoid being sold at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy in 1879.

It is not clear when Whistler took over responsibility for the debt to Messrs Graves. The firm was extraordinarily patient in dealing with the artist. By the end of September 1887 Henry Graves & Co.'s account showed that Whistler owed a total of £579.14.2. for advances and interest on several pictures including £75.0.0 for 'Picture of Miss Franklin.' 7 A year later this sum was still owing. On 23 January 1888 Algernon Graves (1845-1922) suggested that Whistler should pay £35 towards his overall debt:

'If you do this and would like to purchase the Miss Franklin, we would let you have it for 100£. to be added to what you at present owe, the whole to be covered by the Carlyle - or we will lend the Franklin to Brussells [sic] ourselves which ever you prefer.' 8

After it had been exhibited in Brussels, Algernon Graves wrote very politely on 19 March 1888:

'I think I have found a customer for the Effie Deans and he may want the Miss Franklin to match[.] if so I suppose I can let him have it and that you do not care to retain it now it has been to Brussels.' 9

This potential sale fell through, but a year later, on 1 March 1889, Graves again said that he had a prospective customer and asked 'how much profit I may take over the 75£ the price to you': Whistler set a price of £350, offering Graves 10 per cent of the price, plus the original £75, which he still owed. 10 From May to June 1889 Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket was with Elbert Jan van Wisselingh (1848-1912), art dealer, The Hague, where the artist Jacob Maris – Jacobus Hendricus Maris (1837-1899) – admired it, and Reinhard Boelens, Baron van Lynden (1827-1896), thought of buying it, but in the end refused to do so, preferring the painting he already owned, namely Arrangement in Yellow and Grey: Effie Deans [YMSM 183], as van Wisselingh explained:

'Baron van Lÿnden returned from the South ... I regret to say that he is not so much taken with the picture and that he prefers his own. However he may come to like it and I have advised him to secure it. The Dutch are slow and the Frenchman who said that they are the Chinamen of Europe was not far wrong. Now, I like it better than the first one even and some of our artists think very highly of it. James Maris, for whose opinion I care most thinks it is beautiful. That would be quite enough for me if I had been doubtful.' 11

In November 1889 it was suggested that the painting, if not sold, could be sent through the Paris art dealer Durand-Ruel to America, but this was not done. 12 Over a year later, on 10 December 1890, Whistler assured A. Graves he would send him the £75 still owing:

'I thank you & your Father for your most considerate forbearance - and I announce to you with pleasure, that I am now in a position in which I can say that I shall send you, this very next week, the price, in full, for the picture in question, ("Miss Franklin"[)] which I bought from you.' 13

However at the end of the month the balance of £75 was still owing: probably it was paid shortly afterwards. 14

In 1891, according to the artist Sidney Starr (1857-1925), Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket was with Goupil's in London. 15 David Croal Thomson (1855-1930) of Goupil's then sent the picture to Liverpool in hopes of a sale. Whistler asked his wife, Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896), for advice: 'What am I to ask if the Council propose to buy the Fur Jacket? - You saw that Thomson was thinking of £1600.' 16 Whistler apparently then asked £1700, but despite strenuous efforts by Robert Alan Mowbray Stevenson (1847-1900), and the support of Philip Henry Rathbone (1828-1895), hoping to obtain the portrait for the Walker Art Gallery, the Council could not be persuaded to fork out. Stevenson explained:

'I have trotted magnates round and expatiated, drawing parallels, and pointing to the future when all galleries will want their Whistler and may fish for it - - or at least only get it with heavy bait. - In vain just yet ...

I would consider Liverpool a sluggish stream, much fished, in which you leave, however, a night-line; which on being inspected later may be found to have hooked on to something.' 17

Having failed to sell in Liverpool, it was returned to Goupil's in London, and then sent to Paris, and on to Munich, where it was considered as a possible purchase for the Pinakothek at 1600 guineas (32,000 marks) but after suggesting a price of 20,000 marks the Committee rejected it as unsuitable, despite the valiant efforts of the history painter Charles Frederick Ulrich (1858-1908): 18 Ulrich wrote to Whistler:

'To my feeling it is the picture of the exhibition and ought to go [to] the Gallery. It ... looks simply stunning. Four of the men in this commission are friends of mine Piglhein, Loefftz (the Director of the Academy here) Fritz Kaulbach & Marz[.] I lost no time in ... talking it into them that we must try to have the fur jacket purchased. The commission has at its disposal something like 80000 Marks. ... I simply gave Loefftz your telegram in which you state that your price is 1600 Guineas but letting me understand that you would be willing to hear what the government here had to say. This very moment Marz sends me a card saying ... that nothing will be done until Saturday when another visit will be made to the Exhibition, but that everything seems to be in smooth water concerning the Whistler.' 19

Apparently, although Karl Joseph Wilhelm Ludwig Luitpold (1821-1912), Prince Regent of Bavaria, wanted a Whistler for the gallery, the committee thought 'that The Fur Jacket might be perhaps to[o] much a portrait.' 20

It was then bought from Whistler by the Glasgow art dealer Alexander Reid for £400 plus an equal share of the profits on resale. 21 On its return from Munich, Reid offered Whistler a further £100 instead of shared profit, but Whistler hoped for a sale price of 'more like 2000 gs. than your earlier and sadder view of its value - and really I prefer being in this sort of good thing with you.' 22 Reid first sent it to Chicago, insured for £3000, for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, and afterwards, to Philadelphia. 23 On 28 November Reid wrote to the artist, 'The 3 pictures are now in Philadelphia & after all their promises surely one of the pictures will be sold.' 24 According to Harrison S. Morris (1856-1948) of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine [YMSM 050], Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket [YMSM 181], and Arrangement in Black: La Dame au brodequin jaune - Portrait of Lady Archibald Campbell [YMSM 242], belonging to a syndicate headed by Reid, were valued at $15,000 each, but the Academy was not interested. 25

With an asking price of £3000, which was, according to Reid, negotiable, Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket was sent to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 26 Arthur Jerome Eddy (1859-1920) told Whistler, 'My friend Mr. Macomber wrote me he had heard that the Boston people were willing to give $10000 for the picture there - (the Fur Jacket ... I give you the information for what it is worth - there may be nothing in it.' 27 In March 1895 Whistler heard a rumour, unfortunately not true, that 'the Boston people' had bought it, but although the Museum of Fine Arts kept it for over a year, trying to raise the money, in the end the museum did not buy it, 'because the picture was not regarded as a characteristic example of the artist.' 28

In June Reid wrote from Glasgow that he had 'an offer here of £500. for the "Lady with the Fur jacket" & as I have tried without success for a higher price I think of selling it', but Whistler wanted him to hold out for up to 2000gns, and suggested trying to sell it in New York or Pittsburgh. 29 It was later claimed by M. D. Macaulay that the Glasgow art dealer Craibe Angus persuaded 'a wealthy shipowner' to buy it for £400, that Angus charged a sales commission of £60: the purchaser was the Glasgow collector, William Burrell (1861-1958). 30 This may have an element of truth but the painting was still owned by Reid. In April 1898, Whistler indignantly wrote to another Scottish collector, John James Cowan (1846-1936), 'Now do find out ... who Reid sold the "Furred Jacket" to, and the what price he got for it. Another Scotchman has since confirmed the fact that Reid has sold the picture - and it is curious that he takes such a time in sending the information himself!' 31 Cowan replied regarding 'the "Furred Jacket" which is the property of Mr Burrell a Glasgow ship-owner, & is presently lent to the Glasgow Exhibition. I think the price was £1500, but am not certain.' 32 Reid would not admit that he had sold the painting to Burrell, nor divulge a price. 33

There was some speculation in the newspapers after Whistler's death concerning the possibility of several important paintings, including 'The Fur Jacket', being sold to American collectors. 34 In Macaulay's letter, he also claimed that 'A New York art dealer named Smythe, well known to [Craibe] Angus, called at the gallery one morning, and ... through him bought "The Fur Jacket" from the shipowner [Burrell] for £10,000 … Later Smythe divulged the fact that his client in New York had been willing to pay £24,000 for it.' 35 However, these figures are probably incorrect, because in 1909, according to the Macbeth Galleries' records, Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket was sold by Burrell direct to Obach, and sent by them on 19 November 1909 on approval to the Macbeth Galleries, who bought it on 18 December 1909 for £6300. Finally Macbeth sold it to the Worcester Art Museum, between 31 December 1909 and 5 January 1910, for $32,780.

Exhibitions

• 1877: I Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1877 (cat. no. 9) as 'Arrangement in Brown.'
• 1886: International Exhibition, Edinburgh, 1886 (cat. no. 1414) as 'Miss Franklin'.
• 1888: Ve Exposition des XX, Société des XX, Brussels, 1888 (cat. no. 1) as 'Arrangement en noir No. 3'.
• 1889: Derde Tentoonstelling der Nederlandsche Etsclub, Amsterdam, 1889 (cat. no. 469) as 'The Fur Jacket. Arrangement in black No. 3'.
• 1890: Exposition Générale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1890 (cat. no. 839) as 'The fur jacket'.
• 1891: 1st exhibition, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Champs de Mars, Paris, 1891.
• 1891: 21st Autumn Exhibition of Pictures, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1891 (cat. no. 906) as 'Arrangement in Black – The Fur Jacket'.
• 1892: Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892 (cat. no. 8) as 'Arrangement in Black and Brown. The Fur Jacket'.
• 1892: VI. Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung, Königlicher Glaspalast, Munich, 1892 (cat. no. 1950) as 'Die Peltzjacke'.
• 1893: World's Columbian Exposition, Department of Fine Arts, Chicago, 1893 (cat. no. 751) as 'The Fur Jacket'.
• 1893: Sixty-third Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1893 (cat. no. 29) as 'The Fur Jacket'.
• 1896: 1st Annual Exhibition, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1896 as 'The Fur Jacket'.
• 1898: Thirty-seventh Exhibition of Works of Modern Artists, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Glasgow, 1898 (cat. no. 537).
• 1901: International Exhibition, Glasgow Art Galleries, Glasgow, 1901 (cat. no. 399) as 'The Fur Jacket'.
• 1903: 77th Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1903 (cat. no. 232) as 'The Fur Jacket'.
• 1905: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 62) as 'The Fur Jacket'.
• 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. 14) as 'The Fur Jacket' and 'Arrangement in Black and Brown, The Fur Jacket' in the ordinary and deluxe editions respectively.

GROSVENOR GALLERY 1877: At the first summer exhibition of the Grosvenor Gallery Whistler showed two full length portraits, listed as 'Harmony in Amber and Black' (cat. no. 8) and 'Arrangement in Brown' (cat. no. 9). There is a problem in identifying these two exhibits.

The 'Arrangement in Brown' was described in one newspaper as a 'gentlewoman' and in another as inspiring 'a very brown study'. 36 However, Truth queried the title, 'one does not quite see why a white dress with a ghostly pink face at the top should be called an arrangement in brown (9).' 37

The two portraits were described by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) as sisters 'caught in a London fog'. 38 However, a review by William Michael Rossetti (1829-1919) was more explicit, and also implied that the catalogue numbers were incorrect. The two 'life-sized full lengths', he commented,

'seem to have been inverted in the numbering of the catalogue; or else what Mr Whistler regards as amber and black appears to the unpurged popular eye more like brown, and vice versa. The picture which we accept as the Brown has considerable grace, but it is hardly equal to the Amber and Black – a blonde lady in white muslin with black bows, and some yellow flowers in the corner.' 39

The 1980 catalogue raisonné suggested that 'Harmony in Amber and Black' was Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket, the painting under discussion here, and that the 'Arrangement in Brown' was Harmony in Grey and Peach Colour [YMSM 131], basing this partly on Whistler's admission that he had repainted the 'Harmony in Amber and Black'. 40 However, although it is true that Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket was shown at the Grosvenor, it was not under the title 'Harmony in Amber and Black', and it is unlikely that Harmony in Grey and Peach Colour was exhibited at all.

Linda Merrill, in her splendid reconstruction of the events preceding the Whistler v Ruskin trial, established the identity of the 'Arrangement in Brown' exhibited in 1877 as Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket, and suggested that the other exhibit was a portrait of Maud Franklin that was repainted by Whistler and became a Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland [YMSM 107]. 41

Because it had been in the Grosvenor show of 1877, Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket was shown at the Westminster Palace Hotel on the occasion of the Whistler-Ruskin trial in the following year, according to the London Daily News of 26 November 1878.

1886: In Edinburgh 'Miss Franklin' , which may have been Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket, was skied, according to the art critic 'Megilp' of the Bailie. 42

1888: In Brussels Octave Maus (1856-1919) requested a drawing of Whistler's proposed exhibits, to be reproduced in the catalogue.

Whistler sent the sketch, Paintings for exhibition [M.0910], as requested, as well as instructions on how his panel should be hung. The sketch shows the eight works submitted, some single and some double hung. Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket is the upright in the centre, with Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel [YMSM 169] underneath it. 43 Whistler's exhibits, Maus reported, would be between those of Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921) and Darío de Regoyos y Valdés (1857-1913). 44 Whistler's exhibit was, Maus said, 'le plus grand succès et nous avons été très heureux de votre participation, qui a rehaussé brillamment l'exposition.' 45

1889-1890: Immediately after the exhibition in Amsterdam in 1889 it was sent on to Brussels by E. J. van Wisselingh. 46

1891: Whistler wrote to the Belgian artist Alfred Émile-Léopold Stevens (1823-1906) regarding favourable reviews of an exhibition in Paris, 'Aussi ai je été bien charmé dernièrement de trouver mon nom accouplé au votre, dans un compte rendu où l'on parlait de la "Femme jaune" de Stevens, et de mon portrait qui vous plait tant!' 47

Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket was with Goupil's in London in 1891, and was exhibited, according to the artist Sidney Starr, opposite a painting by the Spanish artist Mariano Fortuny (1838-1874): 'the beautiful tone of the whole canvas, the delicate flush on the face of the figure by Whistler made the Fortuny look "black" in spite of its emerald greens, pinks, and yellows.' 48

In August Whistler was on the Liverpool hanging committee, and was asked to lend 'The Fur Jacket' to their show. It was supposedly exhibited on the suggestion of Arthur Melville (1855-1905). He asked D. C. Thomson at Goupil's to send it immediately since 'the hanging is already well advanced.' 49 The Liverpool Mercury commented 'one would say that 'the first thing. to strike is not the personality of the lady, represented. But the picture was not intended to be a portrait', but an 'Arrangement in Black – The Fur Jacket'. 50

1892: D. C. Thomson reported to Beatrice Whistler the success of her husband's retrospective at Goupil's:

'Both our large rooms are filled with the pictures & the effect is magnificent. The three large portraits (Rosa Corder, Lady A. Campbell & the Fur Jacket) hang on our wall & they dwell in ones mind like the grand orchestral tones of a fine oratorio. They are magistral in every way, & their harmonies march along like heroes returning from victory.' 51

Whistler was not happy with the photograph published in the Goupil Album. On 2 May 1892 he wrote to D. C. Thomson that Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) had a photograph of Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket 'in an earlier state ... showing how much finer it could be', being less dark than in contemporary photographs and therefore, Whistler suggested, more suitable for inclusion in the Goupil Album. 52 This suggestion was not taken up.

Whistler wanted the 'Fur Jacket' to go straight on from the Goupil show in London to the Champs de Mars in Paris (but it was too late), and then on to Munich, because Charles Frederic Ulrich (1858-1908) had just seen the 'stunning portrait' at Goupil's and requested its loan. 53 'Die Peltzjacke' won a gold medal, and was considered as a possible purchase for the Pinakethek by the Munich committee, but it was finally returned to the new owner, Alexander Reid in Glasgow, insured at Whistler's request for £1000. 54 By this time arrangements were being made for Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and Alexander Reid was urged to lend 'The furred Jacket', for which Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932) might have a buyer. 55

1893: Alexander Reid put it on exhibition in Glasgow before it was sent to Chicago and Philadelphia. 56 Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) saw it in Chicago and wrote 'The Yellow Buskin, The Fur Jacket and Nocturne, Valparaiso seemed supremely fine.' 57

1894-1895: The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, kept Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket for over a year hoping to buy it. Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) wrote on 1 January 1895, ' "The Lady in a Fur Jacket" adorns a prominent place in the Museum of Fine Arts', but it was not purchased, and eventually it was returned. 58

1898: John Lavery (1856-1941) wanted the painting for the Exhibition of International Art, International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, Knightsbridge, London, 1898. 59 This was not possible, but instead it was shown in Glasgow, both in 1898 and 1901. Interestingly, in 1898 an art critic commented 'Unfortunately Millais' portrait and a portrait by Lavery are quite near Whistler's Fur Jacket, and it is not the latter which suffers by comparison. A loan picture too, Whistler's fairly large canvas is worth a visit in itself.' 60

1904: BOSTON

It was lent by Burrell to the Whistler memorial exhibitions, including the Copley Society show in 1904, as seen in the photograph reproduced above.