Footnotes

• PROVENANCE:
  Acquired by Jean-François Michiels in Saint Petersburg, circa 1854
  His collection, Bruges
  His daughters, Coralie and Léonie Michiels, 1907, and thence by family descent to the present owner
  
  The present owner's ancestor, Jean-François Michiels, who acquired the painting, was a photographer and member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts at Bruges. After having taught the art of photography to the Crown Prince of Prussia (the future Emperor Frederick III), Michiels travelled to Saint Petersburg in order to make a photographic record of the major paintings in the Hermitage. There he acquired a number of paintings, by mostly Dutch and Flemish masters, including the present work and others by David Teniers the Younger and Frans Hals. An inventory exists for the insurance valuation of the Michiels Collection in 1907, which includes the present painting.

Auction Notices

• We are grateful to Mariagrazia Carlone, who noted that the instrument depicted is a 12-courses lute, supposedly invented by Jacques Gauthier and widely spread in the Low Countries since about 1630.

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Category: Fine Art / Old Master Paintings

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