Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Henry Wolf (1852-1916) in 1904 [1]
From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [2]
Notes:
[1] See Voucher Nos. 22 and 26, January 1904, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Charles Lang Freer purchased Little Sophie of Soho from the artist, James McNeill Whistler, in 1899, though the painting was not received or paid for until 1902.
At about that time, according to a letter he wrote to Frank Walcott on November 29, 1907, Freer attempted to have the painting photographed, hiring the best photographers he could find in New York and Detroit - "but the results," he said, "were fearfully disappointing." Consequently, he allowed Henry Wolf to reproduce the painting through wood engraving. According to Burns A. Stubbs (1967), Freer commissioned the engravings on December 4, 1903, and the prints, together with the engraved wood block, were paid for in January 1904 (according to Curatorial Remark 1, Linda Merrill, January 21, 1993, in the object record).
[2] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
