Provenance

1Sir Francis Cook Richmond/London • [d.] 1900 The famous old master collection of Sir Francis Cook (1817–1901) was inherited by his son, Sir Frederick Cook, who seems not to have added to the collection on his own, Elon Danziger, «The Cook Collection, Its Founder and its Inheritors», in: Burlington Magazine (146) 2004, pp. 444–458. It therefore may be fairly assumed that the «Rembrand-Self-Portrait» had already been a part of Sir Francis› collection.

2Sir Frederick Cook Richmond/London • 1900–[d.] 1920 Son of the above, J. O. Kronig, A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, And Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, Bt, Visconde de Monserrate, Herbert Cook (ed.), vol. 2, Dutch and Flemish Schools, London 1914, no. 322.

3Sir Herbert Cook Richmond/London • 1920 – after 1932 Son of the above, Abridged Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook, Bart., London 1932, no. 322. The date of the sale of the picture from Herbert Cook, «in the 1930’s», is given by Martin Porkay, Das gegeisselte Rembrandt-Bild und andere kleine Studien über Irrtümer um Rembrandt, Zurich 1950, p. 61. 

4Nathan Katz Dieren • 1930’s until 1945/46 Owner, together with his brother Benjamin, of an art gallery in Dieren. Nathan Katz was allowed to emigrate from the Netherlands, and to settle in Basel, Switzerland, in February 1942, Esther Tisa Francini etc., Fluchtgut–Raubgut, Der Transfer von Kulturgütern in und über die Schweiz 1933–1945 und die Frage der Restitution, Zürich 2001, p. 43. A co-ownership of the «Rembrandt-Self-Portrait» with the London-based Agnews Gallery is hinted at by Porkay, and it was indirectly confirmed by Colin Agnew when he visited Oskar Reinhart in Winterthur in 1946, and complained about having been cheated out of his share of the profit by Nathan Katz, Archive of the Oskar Reinhart Collection «Am Römerholz», Winterthur, Journal XX, Sunday, 25 August 1946.

5Emil Bührle Zurich • 12 December 1946 until [d.] 28 November 1956 Acquired from the above. The painting was personally delivered by Nathan Katz to Emil Bührle on 16 August 1945, who then must have paid a first installment. A second (?) installment of CHF 210’000 was paid to Nathan Katz on 12 December 1946, when Bührle purchased 3 more paintings from Katz (AStEGB, Declaration, made out by Nathan Katz to Emil Bührle, 16 August 1945, confirming the authenticity of the painting and guaranteeing that the painting had been in the Netherlands before the German occupation of the country; Record concerning a visit of Nathan Katz with Dr. O. Maurer [Secretary General of Oerlikon Bührle & Co.] at the Oerlikon factory on 10 December 1946; Letter from Nathan Katz, Riehen/Basel, 12 December 1946, confirming the sale of the paintings, including «Rembrandt, Selbstporträt, aus Sammlung Cook in Richmond», and the receipt of the amount due. For a detailed account regarding Bührle’s acquisition of the «Rembrandt Self-Portrait» see Lukas Gloor, «Emil Bührle: A Twentieth-Century Modern Art Collection», in The Emil Bührle Collection, History, Full Catalogue, and 70 Masterpieces, Swiss Institute for Art Research, Zurich (ed.), Munich 2021, pp. 100–106.

6Given by the heirs of Emil Bührle to the Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection 1960 to be sold for the benefit of the Foundation, «Object for sale» Inv. 20 .

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