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The Young Artists

Caspar Netscher (Dutch, born in Germany, 1639–1684)
1666

Medium/Technique Oil on panel
Dimensions 21.6 x 16.5 cm (8 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.)
Framed: 32.7 x 28.3 x 4.4 cm (12 7/8 x 11 1/8 x 1 3/4 in.)
Credit Line Gift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art
Accession Number2019.2081
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings

ProvenancePossibly Louis-François, Prince de Conti (b. 1717 – d. 1776), Paris; March 15, 1779, Prince du Conti sale, Boileau and Francastel, Paris, lot 140, sold to Chevalier de Cossé [see note 1]. Possibly Abraham Jacob Saportas (b. 1776 - d. 1836), Amsterdam; May 14, 1832, Saportas sale, De Vries and Roos, Amsterdam, lot 84, sold to Albertus Brondgeest (dealer; b. 1786 - d. 1849), Amsterdam. December 12, 1836, possibly included in the Joannes Jelgerhuis and Abraham Jacob Saportas estate sale, De Vries, Roos and Brondegeest, Amsterdam, lot 44, sold to Roos [see note 2]. Possibly Cäcilie Philippine von Anrep Elmpt (b. 1812 – d. 1892); June 5-6, 1893, possibly in the Countess von Anrep Elmpt sale, Heberle, Cologne, lot 99 [see note 3]. Princess Wolkonski, St. Petersburg; May 26-29, 1902, posthumous Princess Wolkonski sale, Blée and Boudin, Paris, possibly lot 8 [see note 4]. Henri Michel-Lévy (b. 1844 - d. 1914), Paris; June 10, 1902, sold by Michel-Lévy to Charles Sedelmeyer (dealer; b. 1837 - d. 1925), Paris [see note 5]; June 26, 1902, sold by Sedelmeyer to Adolphe Schloss (b. 1842 - d. 1910) [see note 6]; by descent to his wife, Lucie Schloss (b. 1858 - d. 1938); by descent to their children and taken to the Château de Chambon, Laguenne, France [see note 7]; April 13, 1943, looted by Vichy government officials and Gestapo agents and taken to Paris [see note 8]; selected for the Führermuseum, Linz and taken to the Führerbau, Munich (no. 341) [see note 9]; November 8, 1945, recovered by Allied forces and taken to the Munich Collecting Point (MCCP no. 13892) [see note 10]; January 30, 1946, sent to Paris for restitution to the Schloss family; May 25, 1949, Adolphe Schloss estate sale, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, lot 43. November, 30, 1976, anonymous sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, lot 84 [see note 11]. Private collection, France. 1996, sold by Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna, to Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo, Marblehead, MA [see note 12]; 2019, gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 11, 2019)

NOTES:
[1] According to Marjorie Wiesman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-century Dutch Painting (Doornspijk, 2002), cat. 55, this painting was also in a June 22, 1817, supplemental sale, lot 217, as by Schalcken.

[2] Both the 1832 and 1836 sales list a painting matching the description of the present panel as being on copper and by G. Schalken. Buyer information is according to handwritten annotations in the auction catalogues.

[3] Sold as by Godfried Schalken, measuring 29 x 22 cm.

[4] According to Wiesman 2002 (as above, n. 1). A painting titled The Drawing Lesson by an unknown artist, on panel, 23 x 18 cm, is included in the 1902 Wolkonski sale. It is not certain that it is the present painting.

[5] Sedelmeyer Gallery, Catalogue of 100 Paintings by Old Masters (Paris, 1902), cat. no. 28. According to Frederick Duparc, Golden: Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection (New Haven, 2011), cat. 42, a note in the 1902 Sedelmeyer catalogue states that the painting was sold by Michel-Lévy to Charles Sedelmeyer.

[6] According to Duparc 2011 (as above, n. 5), the 1902 Sedelmeyer catalogue notes tthat the painting was sold to Schloss.

[7] In the summer of 1939, the children of the Jewish art collectors Adolphe and Lucie Schloss moved the collection to the Château de Chambon, Languene, France, for safekeeping.

[8] Both French Vichy officials and German SS officers seized the Schloss collection and took it to Paris where it was kept in the basement of the Dreyfus Bank, which served as a storehouse for the Commission of Jewish Affairs. There an inventory of the Schloss collection was made August 13-23, 1943; this painting was no. 187. See Elizabeth Campbell Karlsgodt, “Jewish Art Collections,” in Defending National Treasures (Stanford, 2011), pp. 219-227; National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD, M1946, roll 139, Linz Museum: Consolidated Interrogation Report (CIR) No. 4; and M1949, roll 13, F189 Schloss Collection.

[9] The French were given right of first refusal over the Schloss collection, and 49 paintings were taken by the Louvre. 262 paintings were selected for the Führermuseum, the art museum Adolf Hitler planned to build in Linz, Austria. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD, Munich Central Collecting Point Administrative Records, Microfilm Publication M1946, Roll 141, Linz Museum Lists and Inventories, Schloss no. 160. The Führerbau in Munich was used as a repository for works of art. An inventory of the paintings was drawn up in 1943 and this painting was given the inventory number 341.

[10] Allied troops established collecting points where recovered art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. This painting came to the Munich Central Collecting Point in 1945 (no. 13892). This information is taken from Munich Central Collecting Point inventory card, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (Property Card 13892; Microfilm M1946, Roll 200).

[11] Sold as by Godfried Schalcken, measuring 23 x 18 cm.

[12] Provenance after 1976 is according to Duparc 2011 (as above, n. 5).