Follower of Gabriel Metsu

Possibly Philip van Dijk, The Hague;
Possibly His sale, The Hague, Verheyden, 13 June 1753, lot 72, for 10 florins;
Wellesley collection, London;
His sale, London, Sotheby’s, 19 July 1866, lot 3434 (as a self-portrait by Ter Borch);
With Dowdeswell & Dowdeswell, London;
Ludwig Berl, Berlin;
With Galerie Dr. Schäffer, Berlin, 1929 (exh. cat. no. 54, reproduced);
With Pieter de Boer, Amsterdam, from whom acquired in 1967 by the present owner.

Possibly C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné…, London 1907, vol. I, p. 328, no. 228a (“A Portrait of Metsu, seated, painting”);
Possibly E. Plietzsch, Ausstellung von Werken Alter Kunst von Mitgliedern des Kaiser Friedrich-Museum Verein, Berlin 1914, p. 29, cat. no. 100 (as Metsu);
Possibly K. Erasmus, Ausstellung der Meister des Holländischen Interieurs, Berlin 1929 (as Metsu).

This painting has traditionally been ascribed to Gabriel Metsu, an attribution endorsed by Eduard Plietzsch in an expertise, dated 11 April 1956, though the painting is not included in F.W. Robinson’s 1974 catalogue raisonné of the artist's works. Given Hofstede de Groot’s rather vague description, it is by no means certain that this painting is to be identified with that listed in his catalogue, and the early provenance is therefore only putative (see Literature).