1960, Gift to the Indiana University Art Museum from Frederick Stafford, Neuilly-Sur-Seine, France
1959–1960, Collection of Frederick Stafford, Paris, France and New York, NY
June 24, 1959, Frederick Stafford purchase from Sale, "Important Old Master Paintings," Sotheby's, London, England, (lot no. 41, as "A Mountain Landscape")
ca. 1924–1959, Siméon del Monte Collection, Brussels, presumably purchased from Stroganoff Collection sale; thence by descent to his daughter and son-in-law, Dr. J. C. Hooykaas, The Hague. From 1940-51, the collection was housed at the Perth Museum & Art Gallery in Scotland.The family subsequently put the paintings on long-term-loan with the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague and the Stedelijk Museum in Gouda prior to their sale in 1959. [1]
May 22, 1924, Sale, "Tableaux Anciens," Galerie George Petit, Paris, France, on behalf of Count Stroganoff (lot no. 7)
By 1855–1924, Stroganoff Collection, St. Petersburg, Russia (later Paris) [2]
November 8, 1804, Sale, "Catalogue de la Célèbre Collection de la Tableaux de M. Van Leyden d'Amsterdam," A. J. Paillet auction house, Paris, France (lot no. 133) [3]
August 12, 1803, Sale, "Tableaux des plus grand Maîtres des trois Ecoles," Bizet auction house, Paris, France, lot no. 73. The painting was consigned by the art dealer Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun (did not sell) [4]
Notes:
[1] Siméon del Monte (d. 1929) was a Jewish collector of Dutch and Italian old master paintings. In 1940, his daughter and son-in-law, Dr. J. C. Hooykaas, arranged to lend the collection to the Perth Museum & Art Gallery in Scotland, thus shielding it from Nazi looting. Following the war, the family worked with the Art Exhibitions Bureau in London to arrange a touring exhibition of the collection; it toured to museums throughout northern England in 1950-51. Details about the collection's storage in Perth, The Hague, and Gouda provided by Maria Devaney, Perth Museum & Art Gallery; Milly van Houten and Hans Janssen, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague (correspondence of 2009; and documentation from Perth Museum archives)
[2] It is possible that the Stroganoff family acquired the painting as early as 1804, from the Paris auction noted here. It is documented in their collection no later than 1855, when, according to a label removed from the painting's verso, they had the painting relined by Fedor Tabuntsov, one of the main restorers of the Imperial Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Art historian Gustav Friedrich Waagen describes this painting in his inventory of the Stroganoff collection (see: "Die Gemäldesammlung der Kaiserlichen Eremitage zu St. Petersburg," 1864, page 406). If the Stroganoffs acquired the painting as early as 1804, it became part of the collection of Count Alexander Sergeyevich (1733-1811). It would have passed by descent to Count Sergey Grigoryevich (1792-1882), who would have been the owner at the time of its 1855 conservation (he is also noted as the painting's owner by Waagen in 1864); thence by descent to his son, Count Pavel Sergeyevich (1823-1911). It appears to have been in the collection of Prince George Shcherbatoff-Stoganoff from 1911-1924. In 1917 the family left Russia for Paris, taking this painting with them.
[3] Sold for 800 francs. Although this sale concentrated on the collection of Baron Diderick Van Leyden, the catalogue also contains a list of additional works (including this one) consigned to the auction by the art dealer Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun, who had retained the painting after it failed to sell in the auction of 1803.
[4] A price of 1800 francs is annotated in the catalogue; according to the Getty Provenance Index, the painting was not sold at this auction. The painting was ascribed to the collection of François-Louis-Joseph de Laborde-Méréville (1761-1801) by John Smith in his 1835 catalogue raisonné of Dutch painters (no. 6, page 305, as "Fishermen"); this information is continuously repeated by later art historians and auction houses, presumably based on the Smith catalogue. Published references suggest the painting was included in Laborde-Méréville's sale of 1800. However, no such sales catalogue has been located.Paintings from Laborde-Méréville's collection were included in the 1803 auction in which this painting was included, but no definitive link has been determined between the painting and the Laborde-Méréville collection.
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.
February 28–March 30, 1951, "Exhibition of Paintings from the Del Monte Collection," Art Gallery & Museum, Nottingham Castle, Nottingham, England [1]
June 1939–July 1950, The Del Monte collection was lent to the Perth Museum & Art Gallery in Perth, Scotland. The paintings were on display at the museum from June 1939 to October 1940 and again from February 1943 to September 1945. They remained in storage at the museum until July 1950. [2]
1932, "Tentoonstelling van schilderijen door oud-hollandsche en vlaamsche meesters," The Hague, Koninklijke Kunstzaal Kleykamp, Netherlands (cat. no. 30) [3]
Notes:
[1] Per 1959 Sotheby's catalogue, the collection was lent to municipal galleries of the North of England from July 1950 to October 1951.
[2] The loan was negotiated by Dr. A Martin De Wild of The Hague and Stanley Cursiter, Director of the National Gallery of Scotland with Dr. J. C. Hooykaas, an heir of Siméon del Monte. The goal was to protect the collection during World War II.
[3] This was an exhibition of the Del Monte collection.
