In the family of F.C. Pawle since before 1865;

By whom sold ('Pro🍰perty from the Estate of F.C. Pawle'), London, Christie's, 20 March 1925, lot 44 (as L. Bramer);

There purchased by L.S. Pawle;

The💛nce by descent to his son, probably John C. Pawle;

Anonymous s🍬ale, London, Christie's, 18 January 1963, lot 41 (as Bramer)🅷;

With Reese Palley In🍰c., Atlantiඣc City, New Jersey;

From whom purc🍨hased by a priܫvate collector, New York.

Leonaert Bramer was a prolific Dutch painter of history, religious, and genre paintings. The luminosity of the silver and golden vases at right in this nocturnal composition are a ꦰtestimony to his ability to enhance the most minute detail in a painting. Such a skill would later be mastered by Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), who was said to be Bramer's pupil.

The subject of this painting derives from 1 Kings 8:1-22, when Solomon assembles the priests and elders of Israel with the Arꦺk of the Covenant and all the holy vessels in the Temple in Jerusalem for prayer and offerings. Though the Ark of the Covenant is not depicted, Solomon is shown kneeling in prayer before the tabernacle laden with the two stone tablets of law above him. Bramer repeated this composition in other paintings, inclꦗuding a larger version on panel in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (inv. no. 1324), and a similar sized version on canvas in a New York private collection.