Ewout van Dishoek, Domburg, The Netherlands;
His sale, The Hague, June 9, 1745, lot 45 for 200 florins;
Johan van der Marck Aegidz, Leiden;
His sale, Amsterdam, Schildereyn,  August 25, 1773, lot 187, for 210 florins to Baron van Leyden;
Diederik II Baron van Leyden, Leiden;
By whom sold, Paris, September 10, 1804, lot 61, for 720 francs 29 l to 'La Grange'.

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters..., London 1829, vol. I, p. 98, no. 40 (with incorrect dimensions of 14 by 12 in.);
C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes unk kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke...vol. X, p. 107, no. 2.
Th.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Het Rapenburg: geschiedenis van een Leidse gracht, vol. Vb, Leiden 1990, pp. 529, 602, no. 269.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This oil on panel is in beautiful condition. The panel itself is unreinforced on the reverse and is flat. The paint layer has been cleaned and varnished. There are some slight scratches to the varnish which are visible in the upper corner of the painting which should be corrected. However, there appear to be no retouches and the condition is more or less perfect.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The story of Lot and his daughter꧙s is told in the Old Testament Book of Genesis.  Lot was the nephew of the Hebrew Patriarch Abraham. After settling with Abraham in the land of Canaan, Lot went south with his wife and daughters and settled in the plains near Sodom and Gomorrah.  When God decided to destroy these cities, he sent an angel to spare Lot and his family.  The angel told Lot to flee immediately to the mountains and not to look back lest he and his family be destroyed. Lot's wife did look back and was turned into a pillar of salt.  Lot and his daughters fled to the mountains where they watched the destruction unfold.  While there, Lot's daughters became convinced that they were the only three people on earth to have survived the devastation.  Believing that it was their duty to bear children, Lot's daughters tricked him into having sexual relations with them by intoxicating him to the point that he did not know what he was doing.  Each became pregnant by her father and bore a son, Moab and Ammon, who went on to become the patriarchs of their own nations. 

Van Mieris depicts the story with considerable skill and decorum:  Safe from the destruction evident in the background, Lot's daughters ply their father with wine and he begins to look on them with desire.  Van Mieris often derived the poses of his figures from prints of Classical sculpture, as is evident from the seated nude daughter to the right of the composition.  Additionally, the sensuous textures of the drapery, the sheen of the wine jugs, the overturned goblet, and other still-life elements in the foreground link van Mieris with the fijnschilder, or "fine-♈painter" tradition in his nati♈ve city of Leiden. 

The son and pupil of Frans van Mieris, Willem van Meiris was a prolific and well respected artist and draughtsman.  His works included history paintings (religious and mythological), portraits, landscapes, and genre scenes, which make up the majority of his oeuvre.  He joined the Guild of St. Luke in 1693, and in 1694 he co-founded a drawing academy in Leiden with the painters Jacob Toorenvliet and Karel de Moor.  His artistic output remained high until the early 1730s, when he became partially blind. 

Another version of this composition, signed with the monogram and dated 1716, was recorded by Hofstede de Groot.  (See C. Hofstede de Groot Beschreibendes unk kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke...vol. X, p. 107, no. 3).