Jan Woutersz., called Stap Amsterdam 1599 - 1663

With Dowdeswell, London, circa 1900;
Lambertus de Vries, Berlin;
Dr. Günther Grzimek, Berlin, by 1937, thence by descent to
Mrs. Gisela Schäfermayer-Grzimek, thence by descent to the present owner. 

Lord Lee of Fareham, in T. Borenius, A Catalogue of the Pictures, etc. At 18 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, collected by Viscount and Viscountess Lee of Fareham, vol. II, London 1926, unpaginated, under no. 94, reproduced, as "Netherlandish Master, c. 1550, Johannes Woutersz. (?)";
Kunst- und Antiquitätenrundschau, 1933, p. 375;
A. van Schendel, 'Johannes Woutersz. Stap', in: Oud Holland, 54, 1937, pp. 273-4;
G. Grzimek, Vom Aufgang der Neuzeit, Katalog der Sammlung der Familie Grzimek, Ravensburg 1966, pp.94-5.

This is the left hand half of a painting depicting a couple, which was intact when with Dowdeswell in London around 1900. After it was divided, the right hand part, depicting An old woman weighing coins, entered the collection of  Lord Lee of Fareham, London in 1926, as the second volume of the catalogue of his collection was going to press. The correct attribution to Jan Woutersz. was made anonymously, but was endorsed by Sir Charles Holmes and W.G. Constable.

The Grzimek collection was built up by Dr. Günther Grzimek (1887-1980) in the early 20th Century in Berlin, and after the second World War in Ravensburg. Part of his collection was bought in 1983 by the city of Langenargen on the Bodensee, where it is exhibited in Schloss Montfort.

This painting is offered with a copy of a photostat certificate by Max J. Friedländer, dated 28 August 1929, confirming this painting to be by Stap.