Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death and bequeathed to his ward and executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) ;
• 1907: bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) , Detroit;
• 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

In June 1902 Freer noted buying 'The Little Green Cap' but leaving it in Whistler's studio for further work; presumably he did not pay for it at that time. 1

Miss R. Birnie Philip sold ' "Green & Gold: The Little Green Cap", a portrait of Lillie Pamington', to Freer on 8 October 1907 for £1000, of which £400 was retained by Freer for the Whistler memorial at West Point. 2

Exhibitions

• 1901: 3rd Exhibition, Pictures, Drawings, Prints and Sculptures, International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, Galleries of the Royal Institute, London, 1901 (cat. no. 35) as ‘The Golden Lily’.

A long and somewhat convoluted review by Percy Moore Turner (1877-1950) praised the work:

'[T]he exquisite portrait which he styles "The Golden Lily"... contains all the elements of a really great work, one which arrests and raises itself into rank with the finest examples of modern portrait art. This is done not by any bold and sudden onslaught of colour or trickery of the brush, but by the possession of those subtle qualities, many of them indiscernible until a prolonged contemplation of the work is attempted, which inevitably appeal with a force that cannot be denied. Yet the colour scheme is low in tone and the picture does not take one's breath away, as is the case with many a portrait we remember which has afterwards faded gradually from memory.' 3

The art critic of the Spectator commented on 12 October 1901: 'There is no lack of character in Mr. Whistler’s strangely interesting study of a girl’s face, The Golden Lily. The perfect simplicity of the result hides the subtlety of the work.' 4 Other art critics described it as 'the study of a pallid, red-haired girl' and commended its 'charm of design and movement, ' and described the sitter as being 'as strong in character as in colour.' 5 Such views were not universal: the Morning Post published a letter asserting that 'The personality of the child represented in "The Golden Lily" is not particularly pleasing" but that the sketch did give a sense of 'the artist’s executive facility.' 6

Some critics commented on the dark background, one complaining of the 'unrelieved and unexplained gloom' of the picture. 7 However, Dugald Sutherland MacColl (1859-1948) admired Whistler’s portrait, because although ‘low in tone’, the ‘head shines out against its background.' 8

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