Haarlem School, circa 1650

With Galerie J.O. Leegenhoek, Paris, by 1963;

With H. Shickman Gallery, New York, by 1967 (as Pieter Claesz.);

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 6 July 1984, lot 39 (as circle of Pieter Claesz.);

With Douwes Fine Art, Amsterdam, by 1994 (as Hendrick van Heemskerck, bearing traces of a signature and dated 1644);

From whom acquired by the father of the present owner in October 1994.

A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-life Painters Working in Oils, 1525–1725, Leiden 2003, p. 107 (as Hendrick van Heemskerck).

We are grateful to Dr Fred G. Meijer for proposing this attribution on the basis of digital images, a revision of his views when he published the work in 2003 as by Hendrick van Heemskerck on the basis of information on a mount at the RKD from when the work was with Douwes Fine Art in 1994, which claimed incorrectly that the picture was signed and dated 1644.¹

¹ https://rkd.nl/imageslite/469655; this also shows a photograph of the work before it was cleaned, which revealed the lemon at the far right of the composition.