Merveldt. et. al Sale, Cologne, Kunsthaus Lempertz, June 11, 1928, lot 224;
Anonymous sale, Stoc𝄹kholm, Bukowski, April 4-7, 1973, lot 188.

Amsterdam, P. de Boer Gallery, 1937, no. 101;
Stockholm, Nordiska Museet, Barnet i konsten, September 20-October 12, 1941, no. 291;
Göteborg, Rohsska museet, Spetsar, gamla och nya, utländska och svenska, 1942, no. 281;
Karlsstad, Värmlands Museum, 1943, no. 31.

E. Trautscholdt, Thieme-Becker, vol. XXXII, Leipzig 1938, pp. 348-50;
R. Kultzen, Michael Sweerts, dissertation, Hamburg 1954, no. 83;
R. Kultzen, Michael Sweerts, Ghent 1996, pp. 71, 123, cat. no. 110, reproduced, plate 110 (as present location unknown).

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 painting has been quite recently restored and could be hung as is. The cracking to the paint layer is quite raised. The canvas appears to be lined and the inscription on the reverse is 19th century, so it is a consideration to re-line the canvas to address this raised cracking. Retouches are visible under ultraviolet light in the hair, in the face, in the coat and in the elbow on the right side of the picture, which suggests that there has been some paint loss. These retouches are reasonably successful, yet the picture could be restored more delicately.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This charming work forms part of the rather large group of children's portraits which Sweerts executed throughout his career. Sweerts executed portraits in his days in Rome although his portraits of children seem to date from his subsequent activity in Brussels from 1656 - circa 1658/9, or later. Though he listed this painting in his 1996 monograph on Sweerts, Kultzen only tentatively accepted the work as autograph.  However this hesitation was almost certainly due to the fact that he had not seen the work in person. Since that time however, Kultzen has inspected the work first hand, and modified his unsure attribution of the work in favor of a full and certain attribution to Sweerts. He dates the work to the artists period of activity in Amsterdam circa 1658/9 - autumn of 1661. Kultzen notes that Sweert's preference for depicting children, ``seems to be explained partly by the fresh simplicity of the children's faces. Uninhibited and untouched by experience, their malleable f✱eatures offer an ideal opportunity of applying set rules of portraiture.'' In discussing the present work, Kultzen notes that the pose of the boy ``recalls the pose of a model in a drawing class'' and adds, ``Sweerts manipulates the light to bring out the plasticity of the figure, a favorite technique of his. This is particularly striking in the unex🍃pectedly light area in the right background.''

We are grateful to Peter Sutton for confirmiꦑng the attribution to Sweer🎉ts, based on recent first hand inspection.