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.

Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Danses et Divertissements, 1948–49, no. 198;

The Hague, Mauritshuis, Jan Steen: Tentoonstelling georganiseerd door de Stichting Johan Mauritz van Nassau, 20 December 1958 – 15 February 1959, no. 18, reproduced pl. 18, where lent by the Duchesse de Brissac (with incorrect dimensions: 59 x 37 cm.).