Provenance

• 1899: sold by the artist to John James Cowan (1846-1936) , who still owned it in 1916.
• By 1934: owned by the New Orleans collectors, Hunt Henderson (1869-1939) and his wife;
• 1939: bequeathed by Hunt Henderson to Tulane University;
• 1941: sold by Tulane through the Macdonald Gallery, New York, to Grenville Lindell Winthrop (1864-1943);
• 1943: Winthrop bequest to the Fogg Art Museum.

'Gold & Brown, little Lillie' was sold by Whistler to J. J. Cowan, arriving by New Years Day, 1899. 1 In June Whistler offered to exchange it for some other painting, an offer Cowan did not take up! 2 On 19 November 1902 Cowan sent Whistler a photograph of it. 3

It was lent by Cowan to the Whistler Memorial exhibition in London in 1905 (cat. no. 18) and to an exhibition in New York in 1916 (cat. no. 154). It was lent by Mr and Mrs Hunt Henderson, New Orleans, to an exhibition in Chicago in 1934 (cat. no. 427).

Exhibitions

• 1899: Twelfth Summer Exhibition, New Gallery, London, April-July 1899.
• 1899: 2nd Exhibition, Pictures, Drawings, Prints and Sculptures, International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, London, 1899 (cat. no. 136) as 'Brown and Gold - Lillie "in our Alley!" '
• 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. 18) as 'Lillie in our Ally' [sic] and 'Brown and Gold, Lillie in our Ally' [sic] in ordinary and deluxe edition respectively.

Although Brown and Gold: Lillie 'In our Alley!' [YMSM 464] was not part of Whistler’s tentative arrangements of exhibits in a sketch sent to John Lavery (1856-1941), Plan of a panel of pictures for the ISSPG [M.1582] and a revised arrangement, Paintings at the ISSPG [M.1583], it was sent to the exhibition because Purple and Gold: Phryne the Superb! - Builder of Temples [YMSM 490] had not been completed in time.

The ISSPG show was extensively reviewed (the press-cuttings are in the National Art Library in the Victoria and Albert Museum) and Whistler's exhibit met with mixed reviews, many comparing it unfavourably to the work of, for instance, John Lavery (1856-1941). However, some, such as the Manchester Courier of 10 May 1899, were mildly appreciative. Their critic wrote, 'His six pictures bear characteristic titles, are small in size, and as Whistlerian as ever. ... "Brown and Gold - Lillie in our Alley", is another subdued exercise of perfect restraint in handling, in which the brown is far more evident than the gold.' 4 On the same day, the Pall Mall Gazette described it as a 'clear, cleanly painted, exquisitely simple girl's head'. Furthermore a vivid but anonymous sketch of the portrait was published in The Morning Leader on 15 May 1899. 5