Provenance

• 1903: sold by Whistler to Richard Albert Canfield (1855-1914) , New York;
• 1914: sold by Canfield to Knoedler, New York dealers;
• 1914: sold by Knoedler's to Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) , New York.
• Date unknown: owned by Mildred, Mrs H. K. S. Williams (1873-1939) , San Francisco.
• 1946: sold by Knoedler’s to Prew Savoy (d. 1956) , attorney, Washington, DC.
• 1956/1960: with Norton Galleries, New York.
• 1960: sold by a client through Newhouse Galleries, New York, to Agnew, London dealers;
• 1960: with Lawrence A. Fleischman (ca 1926-d. 1997) , New York art dealer;
• By 1961: owned by Irving Frederick Burton (b. 1918) , Huntington Woods, Michigan;
• 1972: sold by Burton, at auction, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 18 October 1972 (lot 32), and bought by D. B. James (dates unknown) , Signal Mount, Tennessee, on behalf of Scott L. Probasco, Jr., Chattanooga;
• 1981: given by Scott Livingston Probasco, Jr (1928-2015) to the Hunter Museum of American Art.

It was seen by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in Whistler’s studio in 1902 and sold by Whistler to R. A. Canfield in 1903. 1

After being sold by Canfield to Knoedler's on 12 March 1914, it was immediately sold to H. C. Frick. There are several gaps in the provenance thereafter. According to Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, it was later owned by Mrs H. K. S. Williams. The next dated record is 1946, when Knoedler’s sold it to the attorney Prew Savoy, although it was lent in Knoedler's name to the Whistler Loan Exhibition, Macbeth Gallery, New York, 1947 (cat. no. 3).

After another gap in its history, it was sold through the Newhouse Galleries to Agnew's on 22 February 1960, and by them to Lawrence A. Fleischman on 5 July 1960. It was probably sold by Fleischman to Dr Irving F. Burton, who certainly owned it by 1961, and sold it through Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 18 October 1972 (lot 32), when it was bought by D. B. James for $15,000, on behalf of Scott L. Probasco, Jr.

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. 78) as ‘Gray and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland’.