Provenance

• 1897: bought from Whistler by Ernest George Brown (1851-1915) , London;
• 1900: sold through the Fine Art Society to Frank Lusk Babbott (1854-1933) ;
• 1933: passed on his death to his daughter, Lydia Pratt Babbott (Mrs S. Emlen Stokes) (1895-1988) , Moorestown, New Jersey;
• 1988: bequeathed to her daughter, Ann R. Stokes (dates unknown) ;
• 2002: gift of Ann R. Stokes to the Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts.

The painting was kept at The Fine Art Society until August 1900 when, with the help of Howard Mansfield (1849-1938), the print collector, it was sold to Frank Lusk Babbott, Brooklyn, NY. 1

On 23 August 1900 Whistler wrote to the sitter's father:

'Mr. Dunn writes to say that the "pretty Nellie Brown" is to go to America after all! - I believe though that Mr Ward has made another photogravure of the picture - (he was most anxious to do so) before it leaves.' 2

Exhibitions

• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 44) as 'Rose and Gold "Pretty Nellie Brown" '.

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