Footnotes

Provenance
The Collection of Count Grégoire Stroganoff, Rome, by 1912 (as School of Gerard David)
The Trotti Collection, Paris
The Collection of Camillo Castiglione, Vienna, by whom sold
Sale, Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, 17-20 November 1925, lot 41 (sold for 12,000 florins), where purchased by
With Knoedler, New York, where purchased by
The Collection of Mr and Mrs Allan C. Balch, 1944 (as Gerard David), by whom gifted to
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M. 44.2.4) by whom sold
Sale, Sotheby's New York, 17 October 1997, lot 60 (for $112,500)
With Galerie de Jonckheere, 2000, where purchased by the present owners

Literature
A. Muñoz, Pieces de Choix de la Collection du Comte Grégoire Stroganoff à Rome, Rome, 1912, vol. II, p. 60, no. 43 (as formerly Mabuse but now School of Gerard David)
M. J. Friedländer, Die Altniederländische Malerei, vol. VIII, Berlin, 1930, pp. 175-6, cat. nos. 135a and 135b (both refer to the present work)
P. Wescher, Catalogue of Flemish, German, Dutch and English Painting, XV - XVIII Century, Los Angeles County Museum, vol. II, 1954, p. 12, cat. no. 6 (as Barend van Orley)
M. J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, vol. VIII, 1972, p. 109, cat. nos. 135a-135b (both refer to the present work), ill. pl. 116

In his entry for this composition, a model that he dates to circa 1518, Friedländer lists numerous versions and notes that it was in particular demand in Bruges. Given the dimensions, it is highly likely to have been part of a small, portable, devotional object. This composition was particularly popular: one of the known examples is the work offered at Christie's on 9 July, 1937, and later in the Gendebien collection. A further version, now given to Ambrosius Benson, was formerly at Schleissheim Castle in the collection of the Wittelsbach family and is now part of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, in the Alte Pinakothek Munich (inv. no. WAF 60).

The composition continued to be in demand even into the 17th Century. A small work on copper, of similar dimensions to the present panel, was produced by the workshop of Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625), offered at Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 25-29 May 1943, lot 1845, and a further, much larger version, on canvas, by Sir Peter Paul Rubens is at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (ident. no. 917) with the still life elements made in collaboration with Frans Snyders (1579-1657), for the fruit, and either Jan Breughel the Elder (1568-1625) or more likely his son Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678) for the flowers in the background.

At the time of the 1997 sale, Maryan Ainsworth is mentioned as having examined the present work first-hand in the mid-1980s and regarded it as a later version of the composition, dating to later in the 16th century.