Provenance

• 1896: sold by the artist to Goupil, London art dealers;
• 1896/1902: bought from Goupil's by John James Cowan (1846-1936) , Edinburgh.
• 1925/1935: bought from William O'Leary, art dealer, Detroit, by John Law Robertson (1882-1970) , Scranton, PA;
• Date unknown: passed to his wife, Mrs J. L. Robertson, and their daughter, Mrs Jean Carver Maloney (1906-1980) (Mrs Robert W. Maloney Jr.);
• ]1958?]: sold to Knoedler's, New York dealers (#CA 5473) and exhibited at Knoedler's in 1965;
• 1967: sold by Knoedler's to Norman Bailey Woolworth (1901-1962) , Winthrop.
• 1976-1977: with Hirschl & Adler, New York art dealers;
• 1978: given by Mrs Jean R. Maloney in memory of Rosa Chisman (d. 1942) to Cornell University.

It was sold with Sea, Honfleur [YMSM 456] on 23 July 1896, as the artist told E. G. Kennedy: 'The little St. Catherine & the tiny sea bit you brought back are sold "en bloc" this afternoon.' 1 However Whistler told D. C. Thomson of Goupil's, who had bought these oils, that he thought 'the church' needed 'a little more sight' in the frame. 2 It was bought from Goupil's by J. J. Cowan who sent Whistler a photograph of 'The curé's class' and other works in his collection. 3 There are gaps in the subsequent provenance, and the records are confusing and contradictory. .

Exhibitions

• 1899: Thirty-eighth Exhibition of Works of Modern Artists, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Glasgow, 1899 (cat. no. 198) as 'Brown and Gold – The Curé's Little Class'.
• 1904: 78th Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1904 (cat. no. 312).
• 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. 106) as 'The Curé's Little Class' and, in deluxe edition, as 'Brown and Gold, The Curé's Little Class'.

On 8 April 1899, the Glasgow Herald dismissed it as showing Whistler was 'not always at his best'.