UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

It was published in an album of Cancelled Plates ('Cancelled Set') by The Fine Art Society, London, 1879.

It was not exhibited in Whistler's life time. The only exhibit recorded was after Whistler's death, in the Memorial Exhibition in London in 1905. 9 This was probably one of the two extant impressions ( and ).

Whistler sold one impression to Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890) in 1877 for only £1.1.0. 10 This may well have been the sole known impression of the first state, which was bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) from Obach & Co. in July 1906 (). Freer had already bought an impression of the second state from Obach's in December 1903 (). The second state was signed by Whistler about 1886 presumably when it was sold.

Surviving impressions from the cancelled plate are often in the album as published in 1879. For instance, the British Museum bought an album in 1887 (), and Freer bought a set from Knoedler & Co. in 1893 (). Thomas Glen Arthur (1858-1907) also acquired a set in 1887 () which later went to Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Boston Public Library also acquired a set (). A set acquired by J. Littauer, Munich was sold to the Hamburger Kunsthalle in 1896 ().

Prices were low but collectors and collections were keen to have the set of cancelled etchings, as a record of a substantial number of otherwise unrecorded etchings and drypoints. A set, probably acquired from the Fine Art Society by Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (ca 1840- d.1892), was auctioned in 1889 and bought by Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851) for £0.6.0. 11 Dunthorne exchanged it for other works with Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) who bequeathed it to the University of Glasgow (see ). She acquired another set, trimmed the impressions and stuck them on the envelopes containing the copper plates (i.e. ).