Govert Flinck

Provenance

Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky (1710-1775), merchant, financier, art dealer and collecting advisor to Frederick the Great, Berlin, by 1764, when recorded as 'Rembrand', '1. alter Mann, der mit dem Kopf auf der linken hand ruht. Extra fein gemahlt', (28 x 23 inches), priced at 600 Reichstaler
by whom sold in 1764 en bloc with 316 other paintings to
Catherine II the Great, Empress of Russia (1729-1796), Saint Petersburg, as Rembrandt, recorded in an inventory made after her death, in 1797, nr. 3654, and by descent to her grandson
Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia (1796-1855), The Imperial Collection at the Winter Palace, Saint Petersburg
possibly sold in 1854 (Prevot, Saint Petersburg, 6 June 1854 and following days, nr. 636, as 'Flinck. Head of an old man.', the dimensions incorrectly given as 6.3 x 5 vershki or by descent to his son,
Alexander II, Emperor of Russia (1818-1881), by whom sent to Moscow in 1862 with 200 other pictures from The Hermitage, for the picture gallery of the newly-established Moscow Public and Rumyantsev Museums
acquired by Wilhelm Friedrich Mertens (c. 1870-1957) or by his son,
Wilhelm Mertens (1899-1938), both Saint Petersburg until 1917-1918, and subsequently Leipzig, certainly by 1932, and by descent to the following
private collection, Europe
sale, Christie's, London, 6 December 2011, nr. 13
with Jean-Luc Baroni, London, 2014, where acquired by the present owner
Sale Christie's, New York, 27 April 2017, nr. 42

Other works by Govert Flinck

Portrait of a man

Dorothea Berck

Vertumnus and Pomona

A Girl Dressed as a Shepherd

Bearded Old Man