The Intruder

Provenance

Data as published online by the National Gallery of Art:

Possibly William van Huls, London; possibly (his estate sale, at his residence by Wilson, London, 6 August 1722 and days following, no. 129, as Ladies in their Bedroom); Edwin.[1] Colonel Gregory Holman Bromley Way [1766–1844], Denham Place, Buckinghamshire;[2] sold to (John Smith [1781–1855], London); sold 26 January 1830 to George John Venables-Vernon, 5th baron Vernon [1803–1866], Sudbury Hall, Derby; (his sale, Christie & Manson, London, 15–16 April 1831, 2nd day, no. 50, as The Importunate Intruder); purchased by (John Smith [1781–1855], London) for Sir Charles Bagot [1781–1843];[3] (his sale, Christie & Manson, London, 18 June 1836, no. 56); Albertus Brondgeest [1786–1849], The Hague, buying for Baron Johan Gijsbert Verstolk van Soelen [1776–1845], The Hague; sold 1846 with the Verstolk van Soelen collection through (John Chaplin, London) to a consortium of Samuel Jones Loyd [1796–1883, later 1st baron Overstone], Humphrey Mildmay [1794–1853], and Thomas Baring [1799–1873], London, and Stratton Park, Hampshire;[4] by inheritance to Baring's nephew, Thomas George Baring, 1st earl of Northbrook [1826–1904], London and Stratton Park; by inheritance to his son, Francis George Baring, 2nd earl of Northbrook [1850–1929], London and Stratton Park; sold March 1927 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[5] sold November 1927 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] Adriaan E. Waiboer, Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667): Life and Work, Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 2007: 762, no. A-130; Frank Simpson, "Dutch Paintings in England before 1760," The Burlington Magazine 95, no. 599 (February 1953): 41.

[2] John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, 9 vols., London, 1829–1842: 4(1833):103, no. 94; 9(1842):524, no. 29, provides the provenance for the painting from Colonel Way through Brondgeest.

[3] See Charles Sebag-Montefiore with Julia I. Armstrong-Totten, A Dynasty of Dealers: John Smith and Successors, 1801–1924, Arundel and London, London, 2013: 21–22, 72, 75–77.

[4] The catalogue of the Verstolk van Soelen collection, annotated with the purchasers of each work, was prepared by Albertus Brondgeest and is dated 29 June 1846. The Metsu painting is number 30 and the purchaser was Baring. See William Henry James Weale and Jean Paul Richter, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures Belonging to the Earl of Northbrook, London, 1889: 199, 202–203.

[5] Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Los Angeles: reel 124, box 269, folders 14–17. Duveen's representative first saw the painting in 1913 in the front drawing room of Lord Northbrook's London house.