Signed, lower left: W-BOVGVEREAV-1896

March 11, 1897, sold by the artist to (Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, England)

March 1897, (Knoedler & Co., New York, USA)

June 14, 1898, (William O'Leary, Detroit, Michigan, USA)

by 1907, Charles Willis Ward [1856–1920] (Detroit, Michigan and New York, New York, USA)

1909-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Vachon, M. William Bouguereau. Paris, 1900, p. 159. Burroughs, C. "A Bouguereau," Bulletin of the DMA (1907): no. 13, pp. 3, 4. Handbook of Modern Paintings. DMA. Detroit, 1910, pp. 9, 41, no. 94, (repr.). Burroughs, C. Catalogue of paintings, sculpture and contemporary arts and crafts. DIA. Detroit, 1920, p. 92, no. 96. Réau, Louis. L'Art Français aux Etats-Unis. Paris, 1926, p. 163 [as "Les deux sœurs"]. Two Sides of the Medal: French Paintings from Gerome to Gauguin. DIA. Detroit, 1954, pp. 21, 25, cat. 23, (repr.) [intro. by P. L. Grigaut]. New York, New York Cultural Center; Fairleigh Dickinson University; San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums, Isaacson, R., complied by. William Adolphe Bouguereau. 1974/1975, no. 23, pp. 27, 50, (repr.). Bartoli, Damien and Frederick C. Ross. William Bouguereau: His Life and Work. Woodbridge, Suffolk, and New York, 2010, p. 381 (ill.). Bartoli, Damien and Frederick C. Ross. William Bouguereau: Catalogue Raisonné of His Painted Work. Woodbridge, Suffolk, and New York, 2010, pl. 240 (ill.). Walker, Mark Steven. William-Adolphe Bouguereau: l’art pompier. New York, 1991, p. 74.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, On the Shore (Two Sisters), 1896, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Charles Willis Ward, 09.2.