Collection of the artist's studio (Atelier Leys🔯) upon his death (according to a label on the reverse)

By whom sold, Antwerp, Le Roy, 19 December 1892¹

Anonymous s﷽ale, New York, Sotheby's, 31 January 2013, lot ꦗ209

Where acquired by the present collector

¹ The present work was probably sold as a work on paper within a portfolio and was later mounted on its panel support. Based on the catalogue descriptions, it was most likely one of the following: lot 92 ("six études de têtes"), lot 93 ("huit études de têtes"), lot 95 ("études de figures et têtes"), or lot 98 ("études diverses").

Baron Henri Leys began his training at the Academy in Antwerp. The ambitious artist traveled to Paris in 1835 and then to Holland, where he studied the works of the seventeenth-century masters, and to England where he took particular interest in the works of Holbein and Dürer. Leys won a gold medal in 1855 at the Exposition Universelle in Paris for his historical painting, The Mass of Berthal de Haze (now in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels), and he was made a b🤪aron in 1862. At the time of his death, Leys was working on a monumental fresco cycle to decorate the Town Hall depicting the history of Antwerp, a commission that testifies to his a♓rtistic reputation and esteemed career.

A handwritten nineteenth-century label on the reverse of the present panel indicates that this painting was included in the "Vente Leys," a sale of property from the artist's estate which took place in Antwerp from December 19 to 23, 1893. Thoug💃h this work is described in detail, it was likely included in one of the numerous group lots (see Provenance) and later mounted on the present panel by a subsequent owner.