UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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

Elinor Leyland was first exhibited in Whistler's one-man show in London in 1874. 11 An American critic, correspondent of the Tribune, wrote: 'the portraits of the young Misses Layland [sic] are brilliant examples of Mr. Whistler's power.' 12 One of the portraits of the Leyland girls was praised by a critic: 'The portrait of the "Little Girl" (36), by the same process [drypoint], has remarkable freedom of pose and brightness of expression.' 13 An impression was also shown in the travelling exhibition of the collection of James Anderson Rose (1819-1890) in the same year (). 14

The drypoint may have been among recent etchings by Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910), Charles Jacque (1813-1894), Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902), and others, exhibited by C. Silva White at his West George Street Galleries in Glasgow in 1881. A review in the Glasgow Herald refers to 'Miss Leyland's portrait' as follows:

Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) lent his impression to the Union League Club exhibition in New York in 1881 (), and another was shown at the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888, lent by Bernard Buchanan MacGeorge (1845?-1924) (possibly or ). 16 Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) lent one to the exhibition organised by the Caxton Club in Chicago in 1900 (). 17

Impressions were for sale in several exhibitions, particularly at H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York in 1898 () and (twice) in 1903 (, ) 18 and also at F. Keppel & Co. in New York in 1904. The latter came from the collection of Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938).

After Whistler's death, impressions of Elinor Leyland were shown in the big Memorial Exhibitions including the Grolier Club in New York in 1904 (where four different states were shown), Boston in 1904 (lent again by Mansfield), London (lent from the Royal Collection) and Paris in 1905. 19

Whistler sold impressions of the portrait, which he then called 'Babs', in 1877 to the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, and to his friend Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890), for £6.6.0 each. 20

At auction in 1892, an impression from the important collection of the late Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891) was bought by a print dealer, Edmund F. Deprez (1851-1915) of Deprez & Gutekunst for only £3.3.0. 21

Early collectors included Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904), who probably bought it in 1873 (); William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916) (); James Guthrie Orchar (1825-1888) (); Bernard Buchanan MacGeorge (1845?-1924), and later Judson S. Dutcher (b. ca 1863) and Clarence Buckingham (1855-1913) (, ); James Anderson Rose (1819-1890), Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910) and Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) (); and Freer also bought a later state ().

Cancelled impressions, often still in the album as published by the Fine Art Society, were acquired by major collectors and collections. The British Museum acquired a set in 1887 (), as did Thomas Glen Arthur (1858-1907) (). Other early collectors included George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909) () and Freer, who bought a set from Knoedler & Co. in 1893 (). The Hamburger Kunsthalle bought another set from J. Littauer of Munich in 1896 ().

In 1889 the London print dealer Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851) had bought a set at the Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (ca 1840- d.1892) sale, 22 which was later acquired in exchange for other works by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), who bequeathed it to the University of Glasgow (). She also acquired a set which was dismantled, and an impression was stuck on the envelope containing the copper plate (). This did not improve its condition.