Franco-Flemish School, mid-16th century

D.L. Willis;

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 3 May 1957, lot 79 (as Mor, Portrait of a lady (said to be Mary Tudor)), for 500 guineas;

Where acquired by Sir Thomas Ralph Merton (1888–1969), Stubbings House, Maidenhead;

By whose Trustees sold, London, Christie's, 30 November 1979, lot 23 (as follower of François Clouet, circa 1540), for £1,900.

A. Scharf, A catalogue of pictures and drawings from the collection of Sir Thomas Merton: Supplement, London 1950, n.p., reproduced (as French School about 1540; follower of François Clouet).

Note on Provenance

From 1957 until his death in 1969, this painting was owned by Sir Thomas Ralph Merton (1888–1969): a distinguished British physicist, spectrometrist, and inventor, whose achievements in the realm of the sciences were matched by the caliber of his art collection. The highlight of his collection, which was largely amassed in the 1930s and 1940s, was the Portrait of a young man holding a roundel by Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, called Sandro Botticelli (1444/5–1510), sold at Sotheby's New York in 2021 for $92,184,000.¹

¹ Tempera on poplar panel, 58.4 x 39.4 cm.; https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/master-paintings-sculpture-part-i/portrait-of-a-young-man-holding-a-roundel.