Caspar Netscher

Marquis de Voyer, by 1760;
M. le Chevalier de Damery, by 1761;
J.B. de Troy Sale, Remy, Paris,  April 9, 1764, lot 66 (640 Francs);
Mademoiselle Clairon Sale, Paris, March 5/15, 1773, lot 1 (1201 Francs);
Randon de Boiset Sale, Remy, Paris, February 3, 1777, lot 144 (1800 Francs, to Chariot, pour Millon Dailly);
Le Duc de Ch(oiseul or Chabot), Lebrun, Paris, December 10, 1778, lot 38 (2151 Francs to Lebrun);
Possibly Vincent Donjeux sale, Lebrun/Paillet, Paris, April 29, 1793, lot 268 (1400 Francs, with Pendant?);
Destouches sale, Lebrun jeune/Julliot, Paris, March 21, 1794, lot 32 (1200 Francs to Saint Martin);
Didier-Michel de Saint-Martin, Paillet, Paris, May 8,1806, lot 38 (1200 Francs to Paillet);
Anna-Maria Hogguer-Ebeling, Van der Schley, Roos and De Vries, Amsterdam August 18, 1817, lot 60 (550 guilders to Nieuwenhuizen);
Madame Le Rouge sale, Laneuville Chariot, Paris, April 27, 1818 (3310 Francs to De la Haute);
George Watson Taylor, Wiltshire, by 1823;
His sale, Robins, London July 9, 1832 (£157.10 to A. Baring);
Alexander Baring, first Baron Ashburton (1774-1848) by 1833,
by descent to Francis Baring, third Baron Ashburton (1800-1868), The Grange, by 1854 (according to Waagen);
Collection sold en bloc to Agnew's, 1907;
Acquired by the present owner circa 1970.

London, British Institute, 1823, No. 80 .

J.B. Descamps, La Vie des Peintres Flamands, Allemands et Hollandais, Paris 1753-64, vol. 3, p. 83 (as in Voyer Collection);
J.B.P. Lebrun, Galerie des Peintres Flamandes, Hollandais et Allemands, Paris and Amsterdam 1792-96, vol. 2 , p. 84, Sm. 16;
G.F. Waagen, Kunstwerke und Künstler in England und Paris, Berlin 1837-39, vol. 2, p. 88;
G.K. Nagler, Neues Allgemeines Künstler-Lexicon, Munich 1835-52, vol. 2, p. 297, 299;
J. Immerzeel Jr., De levens en wercken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche Kunstschilders, Beeldhouwers en Graveurs, en Bouwmeesters van het begin der vijftiende eeuw tot heden, Amsterdam 1842-43, vol. 2, p. 261;
G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London 1854-57, vol. 2, p. 104, 105;
C. Blanc, Le Trésor de la Curiosité tiré des Catalogues de Vente, Paris 1857-58, vol. 2, p. 228;
F. Kugler and G.F. Waagen, Handbook of Painting: The German, Flemish and Dutch Schools, London 1860, vol. 2, p. 369;
C. Blanc, Histoire des peintres de tout des écoles, Paris 1863, vol. 2, p. 7, 8;
A. von Wurzbach, Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon, Vienna and Leipzig, 1906-II, vol. 2, p. 229;
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, London 1913, vol. 5, p. 171, No. 65;
M.E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher, Doornspijk 2002, p. 233, Cat. no. 93, reproduced.

This recently discovered work represents an important addition to the artist's oeuvre.  Known previously only through photographs, its reappearance confirms this is the prime version of the composition. The young boy resembles the child in Netscher's Mother's Pride in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and it has been suggested that the child might be one of his own.  There is an engraving, which slightly differs from the painting, by Johann Georg Wille dated 1761, entitled Le Petit Physicien, which bears a dedication  "à Monsieur Damery, d'apres le tableau original de même Grandeur".  Monsieur Damery was the first owner of the picture, which has a particularly illustrious provenance having been in the esteemed collections of the Duc du Choiseul and Alexander Baring, Lord Ashburton.