Jacobus Vrel

Alexander Günther, Fasano, Lago di Garda, Italy;

With Bernheimer Gallery, Munich; 

With Julius Böhler, Munich; 

From whom acquired by John Dexter McIlhenny (1866-1925), Philadelphia, on 21 January 1915; 

Thence by inheritance to his wife, Frances Galbraith Plumer McIlhenny (1869-1943), Philadelphia;

Thence by descent to their son Henry Plumer McIlhenny (1910-1986), Philadelphia;

From whom acquired by Artemis Fine Arts, New York, 1977;

With Gebr. Douwes, London, 1979–1980; 

Acquired by Dr. Hinrich Bischoff (1936–2005), Germany, shortly after, and certainly by 1985; 

By whose heirs anonymously sold (“Property from a Private Collection”), London, Sotheby’s, 3 July 2019, lot 18;

Where acquired. 

Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Holländische Malerei aus Berliner Privatbesitz, 1984-1985, no. 83;

Atlanta, High Museum of Art, Masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age, 24 September – 10 November 1985, no. 57. 

W.R. Valentiner, “Paintings by Pieter de Hooch and Jacobus Vrel,” in Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts 9, no. 7 (April 1928), p. 80;

W.R. Valentiner, “Dutch Genre Painters in the manner of Pieter de Hooch, II, Jacobus Vrel”, in Art in America and Elsewhere 17, no. 1 (December 1928), 1929, pp. 91–92; 

W.R. Valentiner, in Pieter de Hooch, des Meisters Gemälde in 180 Abbildungen, Stuttgart 1929, p. XXXV;

W.R. Valentiner, Pieter de Hooch: The Master’s Paintings in 180 Reproductions, London 1930, p. XXX;

C. Brière-Misme, “Un ‘intimiste’ Hollandais – Jacob Vrel”, in Revue de l’Art 68, no. 365, (November 1935), pp. 110, no. 2, reproduced p. 107, fig. 5; 

W. Bernt, Die Niederländischen Maler und Zeichner des 17. Jahrhunderts, vol. III, Munich 1948, p. 973;

E. Plietzsch, “Jacobus Vrel und Esaias Boursse”, in Zeitschrift für Kunst 4, (1949), p. 248; 

W.R. Valentiner, “Jacques de Ville or Jacobus Vrel”, in Bulletin of the J. Paul Getty Museum of Art I, no. 2 (1959), p. 23 ff.; 

E. Plietzsch, Holländische und Flämische Maler Des XVII. Jahrh., Leipzig 1960, p. 81;

G. Régnier, “Jacob Vrel, un Vermeer du Pauvre,” in Gazette des Beaux-Arts 71 (May–June 1968), pp. 270, 281, reproduced fig. 15; 

W. Bernt, Die Niederländischen Maler und Zeichner des 17. Jahrhunderts, Munich 1980, vol. III, reproduced plate 1432; 

E.A. Honig, Everything there is to know about... Jacob Vrel, MS, RKD, The Hague, 25 March 1985, no. B-5; 

F.J. Duparc, Masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age, exhibition catalogue, Atlanta 1985, pp. 126-127, cat. no. 57, reproduced; 

E.A. Honig, “Looking in(to) Jacob Vrel,” in Yale Journal of Criticism 3, no. 1 (Fall 1989), p. 48;

E. Mai, in Das Kabinett des Sammlers, Gemälde vom XV. Bis XVIII. Jahrhundert, E. Mai (ed.), Cologne 1993, pp. 267-268, cat. no. 105, reproduced;

E. Mai, “Wer was Jacobus Vrel? Hypothesen zum sogenannten 'Vermeer der Armen’,” in Kölner Museums-Bulletin 4 (2003), pp. 46, 47, 64, reproduced fig. 7;

L. Stone-Ferrier, “Jacobus Vrel’s Dutch Neighborhood Scenes,” in Midwestern Arcadia: Essays in Honor of Alison Kettering, Northfield 2014, p. 83, note 10;

D. Dufort, Unearthing “Jacobus Vrel”: un petit-maître, un intimiste, a painter buried in histories, Ph.D. dissertation, University College London 2019, pp. 23, 36, 86 note 319, 97, 191, 283, 292, 297, 352, 357, 365-367, cat. no. CR37, reproduced;

Q. Buvelot et. al., Jacobus Vrel: Searching for Clues to an Enigmatic Artist, exhibition catalogue, Q. Buvelot, B. Ebert, and C. Tainturier (eds.), The Hague 2021, pp. 56-58, 82-84, 212, cat. no. 14, reproduced figs. 9, 10.