Jan Havicksz. Steen

Possibly Pieter de la Court, Leiden (1618–1685);

His son Pieter de la Court van der Voort, Leiden (1664–1739);

His posthumous sale, Amsterdam, Slagregen, 26 August 1772, lot 6, to Fouquet for 215 florins;

Pierre Fouquet Jr (a ‘marchand d'estampes’);

His posthumous sale, Amsterdam, Van der Schley, 13–14 April 1801, lot 66, for 265 guilders to La Fontaine;

Possibly Mr Wilkinson, Gloucester Place, London;

Anonymous sale (‘The Property of a Gentleman, Deceased. Removed from his late residence in Gloucester Place’), possibly Mr Wilkinson (according to Westrheene, see Literature), London, Christie's, 25 April 1828, lot 110, for £114–9s. to Emmerson (as ‘The Wedding Day’);

Presumably with Thomas Emmerson, London;

Charles Brind, by 1832;

His posthumous sale, London, Christie's, 12 May 1849, lot 67, for £109–4s. to W. Theobald (as ‘the Painter and his family merrymaking at the wedding of his daughter’);

Thomas Capron, London;

His sale, London, Christie's, 3 May 1851, lot 80, for 190 guineas to Lightfoot (as ‘Jan Steen's wedding’);

Joseph Eugène Schneider (1805–1875), Paris;

His posthumous sale (‘M. Schneider, Ancien Président du Corps législatif, Gérant des Forges du Creusot’), Paris, Pillet & Escribe, Hôtel Drouot, 6–7 April 1876, lot 36 (as ‘Fête flamande’), for 7,100 francs to Jacobi, reproduced;

Presumably bought back or acquired after the sale by Schneider's son Henry Schneider (1840–1898) or grandson Eugène Schneider II (1868–1942); 

Marie-Zélie (known as May) Schneider (1902–1999), great-granddaughter of Joseph Eugène Schneider, Duchesse de Brissac, Paris, by 1958; 

With Richard Green, London, 1996–97;

Private collection, Europe;

Anonymous sale (‘Property from an Important European Private Collection’), London, Sotheby's, 4 July 2007, lot 36, for £1.7m ($3.4m); 

Acquired at the above sale by Noortman Master Paintings, Maastricht;

From whom acquired by the present collector in 2007.

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné..., London 1833, p. 50, under no. 150;

T. van Westrheene, Jan Steen: Étude sur l'Art en Hollande, The Hague 1856, p. 120, no. 90 (as in the collection of Charles Brind; it had however been sold in his posthumous sale, 1849, see Provenance);

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., London 1908, vol. I, p. 128, no. 479, p. 152, no. 585, p. 169, under no. 646, p. 172, under no. 655;

A. Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813–1912, vol. III, London 1914, p. 1255;

Jan Steen: Tentoonstelling georganiseerd door de Stichting Johan Mauritz van Nassau, exh. cat., Mauritshuis, The Hague, 20 December 1958 – 15 February 1959, no. 18, reproduced plate 18 (with incorrect dimensions: 59 x 37 cm).;

K. Braun, Jan Steen: Alle tot nu Toe Bekende Schilderijen, Rotterdam 1980, p. 111, no. 181, reproduced;

B. Broos et al., Great Dutch Paintings from America, exh. cat., Zwolle 1990, p. 422, reproduced fig. 3, p. 423, n. 27 (with dimensions listed incorrectly as 59 x 37 cm., as location unknown, and listed as a copy but known only from an old photograph);

A.K. Wheelock, in H. Perry Chapman et al., Jan Steen: Painter and Storyteller, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, 28 April – 17 August 1996; and Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 21 September 1996 – 12 January 1997, p. 165, n. 3 (with incorrect dimensions: 59 x 37 cm.);

W. Kloek, in Important Old Master Paintings, Richard Green, London 1997, no. 18, reproduced in colour, on cover and with details;

W. Kloek, Jan Steen (1626–1679), Amsterdam 2005, p. 55, reproduced p. 56, fig. 49;

E. Schavemaker, in One Hundred Master Paintings, Zwolle 2007, pp. 318–23, no. 73, reproduced in colour.

ENGRAVED

By Félix Augustin Milius, Paris, reproduced in Schneider sale catalogue, 1876.