2001, Bequest of Herman B Wells to the Indiana University Art Museum
1966–2001, Collection of Herman B Wells, Bloomington (purchased from Newhouse Galleries, New York) [1]
By 1962–1966, with Newhouse Galleries, New York [2]
March 11, 1952, Sale, “Tableaux, antiquités, objets d’art,” Frederik Muller & Cie Auction House, Amsterdam (lot no. 702)
1950–1952, c/o Dutch government [3]
1943–1950, Collection of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany (inventory no. 2685; purchased from the Van Marle & Bignell auction) [4]
January 25, 1943, Sale, “Beklangrijke Veiling van kostbare oude schilderijen,” Van Marle & Bignell Auction House, The Hague (lot. no. 43, illustrated plate 1) [5]
ca. 1942–1943, with Esher Surrey Art Galleries, The Hague
?–ca.1942, Private Collection, possibly Netherlands [6]
Possibly: before 1942, Private Collection, Cologne, Germany [7]
Notes:
[1] Wells purchased the painting between September 28 and November 16, 1966, according to secretarial documentation from April 4, 1975, Herman B Wells papers, Indiana University Archives.
[2] The painting is reproduced in a series of ads for the Newhouse Galleries that appear in the Burlington Magazine as early as June 1962.
[3] The painting was one of fifteen restituted to the Netherlands by the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in January 1950. Paintings acquired by the museum during World War II were confiscated by the Allies after 1945 in accordance with the London Declaration, which required restitution of all artworks acquired in occupied regions during the war (as described in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum collections catalog, publ. 1961–66). This painting was in Allied military custody in Baden-Baden before its delivery to the Dutch government (according to an email from Renate Völlmecke, Registrar at the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, May 14, 2007; and per an inventory card found in the Dutch National Archives, SNK Nr. 880).
[4] A label affixed to the frame verso reads: “Wallraf-Richartz-Museum Gemälde-Inventar 1925 No.2685.” The Wallraf-Richartz purchased the painting in 1943, as confirmed by their staff in faxed documentation, May 15, 2007.
[5] Van Marle & Bignell was connected financially and by management to the Esher Surrey Art Galleries, from whom they acquired the painting in 1943 (as per email from Perry Schrier, Dutch National Archives, May 25, 2007).
[6] The person who may have consigned the painting with Esher Surrey had the common Dutch surname Pijnakker (per document from Van Marle & Bignell Archive, Dutch National Archives, SNK Nr. 716). It has not been possible so far to further identify this former owner.
[7] Per Newhouse Gallery provenance sheet, dated 1975, Herman B Wells papers, IU Archives.
Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
