Anton Mirou

Anonymous sale, Brussels, Palais de Beaux-Arts, 10 October 1962, lot 463;

With Galerie Robert Finck, Brussels;

Where acquired by a private collector;

Thence by descent to his son;

By whom sold anonymously ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Sotheby's, 9 July 1998, lot 20;

Where acquired by the present owners.

As well as painting village landscapes, Mirou made drawings for a series of prints published by Matthias Marian (1593–1650) circa 1620–22. One of these prints and its corresponding drawing, both of which are today in the British Museum, London,¹ incorporate a two-span wooden bridge and a tree rising from the left bank of the stream, as in the present work.

¹ Museum no. 1971,0515.22; etching, 17.5 x 24.8 cm.; print | British Museum; museum no. 1983,0625.1; pen and brown ink, with grey-brown and blue wash, 18.2 x 27 cm.; drawing | British Museum.