Willem van de Velde the Younger

His deceased sale, Amsterdam, De Winter, 24 October 1763, lot 21;

Jacob van Zaanen;

His sale, The Hague, Rietmulder, 16 November 1767, lot 2, for 600 florins to Zwaart;

Jan Gildemeester Jansz. (1744–1799), Dutch Consul-General of Portugal, Amsterdam;

His deceased sale, Amsterdam, Van der Schley, 11–13 June 1800, lot 235, for 3,425 florins to Westerwoud;

Probably acquired by Francis Egerton (1736–1803), 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, Cleveland House (later Bridgewater House), St James's, London, shortly before his death on 8 March 1803;

Bequeathed by him with a life interest to his nephew George Granville Leveson-Gower (1758–1833), 1st Earl Gower, created 2nd Marquis of Stafford in 1803 and 1st Duke of Sutherland in 1833, London;

By reversion according to the terms of the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater's Will to the 1st Duke of Sutherland's second son Lord Francis Leveson-Gower (1800–1857), who changed his name to Egerton, and was created 1st Earl of Ellesmere in 1846 (and who rebuilt Bridgewater House);

Thence by descent at Bridgewater House until the Second World War and subsequently at Stetchworth Park, Newmarket, until sold (‘By order of the Trustees of the Ellesmere 1939 Settlement’), London, Christie's, 2 June 1976, lot 93, where acquired by Julia Kraus on behalf of a private collector;

By whom sold, London Sotheby's, 4 July 2012, lot 24, where acquired on behalf of the present owner.

J. Britton, Gallery of Cleveland House, London 1808, no. 242;

W.J. Ottley, Engravings of the Most Noble the Marquis of Stafford's Collection of Pictures in London, London 1818, no. 128, described in vol. 3;

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. VI, London 1835, pp. 381–82, no. 219;

A. Jameson, Companion to the Most Celebrated Galleries of Art in London, London 1844, pp. 77ff.;

G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London 1854, vol. 2, p. 51, no. 7 ("Much more carefully executed in the details, and far more harmonious in its delicate grey tone, than most of the larger sea-pieces by this master that I have seen");

F.T. Kugler and G.F. Waagen, Handbook of Painting..., London 1860, p. 465;

Bridgewater House Catalogue, London 1903, no. 110;

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol VII, London 1923, p. 13, no. 27;

Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures... of the Earl of Ellesmere at Bridgewater House, Cleveland Square, etc, London 1926, no. 134;

K. Zoege von Mantteufel, in U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler, vol. XXXV, Leipzig 1940, p. 204;

J. de Bruyn Kops, ‘De Amsterdamse verzamelaar Jan Gildemeester Jansz.’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum, 13, 1965, p. 114, note 54;

F.L. Fox, Great Ships, London 1980, p. 45, reproduced in colour;

M.S. Robinson, Van de Velde. A Catalogue of the Paintings of the Elder and Younger Willem van de Velde, Greenwich 1990, vol. I, pp. 143–45, no. 75, reproduced;

G.S. Keyes, Mirror of Empire. Dutch Marine Art of the Seventeenth Century, exh. cat., Cambridge and Minneapolis 1990, pp. 174–76, no. 40, reproduced in colour p. 175 (also p. 261, under no. 40).

ENGRAVED

By T.C. Busky, 1812;

By William Young Ottley, 1818.