Provenance

• By 1905: Henry John Cockayne Cust (1861-1917) .
• By 1913: bought by Dr Hogarth (dates unknown) , Oxford;
• 1913: bought from Hogarth by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) , Detroit;
• 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

The early history of this painting, after its exhibition at Petit's gallery in 1887, is unclear. Whistler did tell Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac (1855-1921) that he had some 'belles choses', not on exhibition, but available for viewing, including 'Une Note Rouge exquise, peinture - que vous connaissez', at the Goupil Gallery in Paris in 1891. 1 This implies that the picture had been seen by Montesquiou in Whistler's studio either in London or Paris, which suggests a date between 1885 and 1891.

Several years later, the painting was lent to the Whistler memorial exhibition in Paris in 1905 (cat. no. 54) by Henry John Cockayne Cust, M.P., formerly editor of the Pall Mall Gazette. It was bought from him by Dr Hogarth, Oxford, probably in 1913, and sold by him to C. L. Freer in December 1913 for £350. 2

Exhibitions

• 1884: Possibly 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884.
• 1887: Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887 (cat. no. 170) as 'Note en rouge. L'Eventail'.
• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 54) as 'The Little Red Note'.

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