Provenance

1François-Xavier de Burtin Brussels • until 1802 Allmuth Schuttwolf, «Ernst II. als Förderer Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbeins, Ernst II. als Gemäldesammler», in Die Gothaer Residenz zur Zeit Herzog Ernsts II. von Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg (1772–1804), (Ausst.kat.) Museum Friedrichstein, Gotha 2004, p. 9.

2Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg Castle Friedenstein • Gotha • 1802–[d.] 1804 Acquired from the above, together with 3 other oil sketches by Rubens for the Jesuit Church in Antwerp, Schuttwolf, as above (n. 1).

3The Dukes of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg Castle Friedenstein • Gotha • until 1825 By inheritance.

4The Dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Castle Friedenstein • Gotha (until 1928, then Herzog von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha’sche Stiftung für Kunst und Wissenschaft • from 1879 until 1945 on deposit at Herzogliches Museum • Gotha) By inheritance; Duke Carl Eduard of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was forced into abdication in 1918, but remained the owner of the art collection in Gotha until 1928, when it was turned into a foundation monitored by the State of Thuringia, Allmuth Schuttwolf, Verlustdokumentation der Gothaer Kunstsammlungen, Bd. 2, Die Gemäldesammlung, Gotha 2011, pp. 13, 17, no. 345 (ill.).

5Removal from Gotha to Coburg 27 March 1945 Initiated and organized by Eberhard Freiherrr Schenk von Schweinsberg, Director of the Herzogliches Museum in Gotha, with the intention to protect the work against seizure by Russian trophy brigades and to place it in the custody of the ducal family there; the work’s removal, along with 2 other oil sketches by Rubens and a portrait by Frans Hals, from Gotha (Thuringia) to nearby Coburg (Bavaria) later helped to withhold these works from the Soviet administration which, according to the Treaty of Yalta, took over the State of Thuringia from the Americans in July 1945, whereas Bavaria remained under American administration, Mirko Krüger, «[…] vor dem Einmarsch der Russen nach Koburg zu transportieren», in: Wieder zurück in Gotha, Die verlorenen Meisterwerke, (exh. cat.) Herzogliches Museum Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha 2021–2022, pp. 68–69, fig. 5.

6E. & A. Silberman New York • by 1953 Advertisement of E. & A. Silberman Galleries, Inc., New York, illustrating Rubens, Saint Augustine, in Art Quarterly (16) 1953, p. 87.

7Dr. Walter Feilchenfeldt Zurich • 1953 Acquired from the above, Information given by Mr. Walter Feilchenfeldt, Zurich, son of Dr. Walter Feilchenfeldt, to Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich, on 22 April 2008. This information is corroborated by AStEGB, Letter from E. and A. Silberman Galleries, Inc., New York, to Emil Bührle, 14 September 1953, accompanying a publication of another Rubens sketch from the same series, then recently acquired by the Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo (New York).

8Emil Bührle Zurich • 29 May 1953 until [d.] 28 November 1956 Acquired from the above, AStEGB, Entry Book II, 22 May 1953; AStEGB, Handwritten note from Emil Bührle to Dr. O. Maurer [Secretary General of Oerlikon Bührle & Co.], n. d., announcing that Dr. Feilchenfeldt will soon come to collect CHF 200.000 for a landscape by Cézanne (Emil Bührle Collection, Inv. 175), and the Rubens sketch of which CHF 30.000 are to be transferred to an account with Schweizerische Kreditanstalt, and CHF 170.000 to be handed over in cash («discret»); AStEGB, Letter from Dr. O. Maurer to Industrie- und Handelsbank, Zurich, 29 May 1953, ordering payment of CHF 30.000 to Dr. Feilchenfeldt.

9Given by the heirs of Emil Bührle to the Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection Zurich • 1960 Inv. 160.

AStEGB = Archive of the Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich