Painted in 1654 for "Monsieur Mierelle," according to the inscription on the corresponding drawing in Claude's Liber Veritatis;
Lord George Augustus Cavendish (d. 1794), Holker Hall, Cark-in-Cartmel, Lancashire by 1777;
His nephew Lord George Augustus Henry Cavendish, 1st Earl of Burlington (1754-1834);
His grandson William, 2nd Earl of Burlington and later 7th Duke of Devonshire (1808-1891; succeeded to the Dukedom in 1858 and died in 1891);
His grandson, Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire (1868-1938), who on succeeding as 9th Duke in 1908 made over Holker to his brother;
Lord Richard Frderick Cavendish (1871-1946), by whom sold, London, Christie's, 12 December 1930, lot 38, for £199 to Huggins;
Acquired by an English private collector, from Huggins, until 1958;
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Sotheby's, 13 July 1977, lot 9;
With L. Koetser, Zurich;
Deder collection, Switzerland;
With P. & D. Colnaghi, Ltd., London, their stock number 15, until 1979;
Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Private Collector"), London, Sotheby's, 8 July 1999, lot 86, where acquired by the presen💫t owner.

Washington D.C., The National Gallery of Art; Paris, Grand Palais, Claude Lorrain: A Tercentenary Exhibition, 17 October 1982 - 16 May 1983, cat. no. 42. 

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, vol. VIII, London 1837, pp. 262-263, no. 131;
G.F. Waagen, Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London 1857, p. 422;
M. Stephens, "The Private Collections of England: XXXI Holker Hall," in The Athenaeum, no. 2601, 1 September 1877, p. 281;
M. Pattison (Lady Dilke), Claude Lorrain, Paris 1884, pp. 77, 230, cat. no. 3;
G. Isarlo, in Arts, 22 April 1949, p. 8;
M. Röthlisberger, in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, April 1960, p. 217, reproduced p. 211;
M. Röthlisberger, Claude Lorrain: The Paintings, London 1961, pp. 317-318, cat. no. 131, reproduced vol. II, fig. 226;
M. Röthlisberger, Claude Lorrain: The Drawings, London 1968, vol. I, p. 279, under cat. no. 732;
M. Röthlisberger and D. Cecchi, L'opera completa di Claude Lorrain, Milan 1975, p. 112, cat. no. 199, reproduced on p. 113 and in colour plate XL;
M. Kitson, Claude Lorrain: Liber Veritatis, London 1978, pp. 132-33, under cat. no. 131;
H.D. Russell, in Claude Lorrain. 1600-1682, exhibition catalogue, Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1983, p. 170, cat. no. 42.

The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a fairly recent lining and stretcher, with quite a recent restoration also. The long, stable, background of the painting can be seen in the fact that there is remarkably little retouching and virtually no accidental damage at all. Any small retouchings to be seen under ultra violet light are mostly related to premature craquelure in the darks, due to the artist's search for richer depths of tone for instance in the foliage. There are small touches down the tree trunk on the right and in the dark foliage above, where there is the most open premature craquelure. Around the feet of the cows there is occasional strengthening, and in the middle distance on the left some of the underlying darker layers have been slightly uncovered, for instance in the bank beyond the water, slightly blurring the legibility of these parts. There are a few touches by the stretcher bar line on the left and in the craquelure of the central trees, with a small patch of retouching between two central tree trunks and a few minor touches in the water. The immediate foreground is magnificently intact with its fine detail in characteristically sharper focus. There are one or two long narrow slightly wandering lines of retouching visible under ultra violet light at the edges: one runs down alongside the right edge for much of its length and another runs along part of the lower foreground near the extreme edge, possibly from surface scratches during framing. Any of these minor surface touches are only slight imperfections in a great painting, which has been exceptionally well preserved. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"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."

The subject is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses II, 676-708. Mercury, having been seen by the old man Battus stealing the herds of Admetus, offers the latter a heifer in return for his silence. Battus duly promised that a nearby stone would tell the story before he did. However, Mercury later returned in disguise and offered Battus a cow and a bull if he would reveal the whereabouts of the cattle. Battus succumbed to the offer and revealed the location of the herd, whereupon he was turned into a flinty stone by Mercury. The "glades and grassy meadows" of the fields of Pylos described by Ovid are here depicted bathed in the late afternoon light so favoured by Claude, and in the rendition of which he remains unsurpassed. The tranquil elegiac atmosphere is enhanced, as H. Diane Russell observes in the catalogue of the Washington exhibition (see Literature), "by Mercury's gesture in hushing Battus, as if any sound would intrude upon this locus amoenus."

This painting was probably originally painted as a pendant to the lost Apollo guarding the herds of Admetus and Mercury stealing them (Liber Veritatis no. 128), which was painted in the same year and was also formerly at Holker but destroyed by fire in 1870. The corresponding drawing to the present painting in the Liber Veritatis is similarly inscribed: Claudio f.V. Roma 1654. I.V.F. fait pour M^r . Mielin. The two were considered a pair when in Lord Cavendish's collection, although the dimensions of the latter (75 by 110.5 cm.) were apparently slightly different. The subject matter of the paintings was certainly suitable for pairing, as they depict successive episodes in the Metamorphoses. This painting is, in fact, Claude's first treatment of the subject of Mercury and Battus. He was to return to the theme on a larger scale in the painting of 1663 commissioned by Henri van Halmale and now at Chatsworth,¹ again painted as a pendant to Mercury stealing the herds of Admetus.²  Two related drawings are also now in the Musée du Louvre.³

The identity of this landscape's first owner, the 'M^r. mierelle' or 'M^r. Mielin' identified by inscriptions on both Liber Veritatis drawings, remains tantalisingly elusive. The following, none of whom is otherwise known as a collector of paintings, have been suggested: the famous collector of engravings Michel de Marolles (1600-1681), the French engraver Claude Mellan (1598-1688, but only in Rome between 1624 and 1636), the sculp꧒ture collector Nicolas Mellet of Verdun, or a relative of the French painter Charles Mellin (who died in Rome in 1649). The commission, either of this single painting, or more likely of the pair, se🏅ems to have been unique.

Thereafter, this painting was one of no less than four Claudes to have entered the collections at Holker Hall in Lancashire. Lord George Cavendish's uncle, Sir William Lowther, 3rd Bt., had already acquired two of Claude's largest works just before his death in 1756; the Parnassus of 1652 now in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, and the Flight into Egypt of 1645 now at Cleveland.⁴  To these Lord George must have added the p🔜resent work and its now destroyed companion, but where and when he acquired them is not known.

1.  Exhibited, London, National Gallery, Claude: the poetic landscape, 1994, no. 77.
2.  London, Wallace Collection, reproduced Röthlisberger, see Literature, 1961, vol. I, pp. 356-7, no. LV 152, vol. II, fig. 250.
3.  Idem., p. 378, nos. 1 and 2.
4.  See, for example, F. Russell, "Thomas Patch, Sir William Lowther and the Holker Claude," in Apollo, vo𓂃l. CII, August 19🉐75, pp. 115-19, figs. 5 and 6.