Museum

Possibly Baron Adolphe de Rothschild, sold to Goupil, 17 Feb. 1881; [possibly Goupil, Paris, sold to Secrétan, 18 Feb. 1881];¹ Ernest Secrétan, Paris (possibly 1881–89, his sale, Galerie Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris, 1 July 1889, no. 52, ill., as Le Liseur blanc); [Galerie Charles Sedelmeyer, sold to Boussod, Valadon, 8 Oct. 1889]; [Boussod, Valadon, Paris, sold to Dreux, 31 Oct. 1889];² Ernest Dreux, Paris (1889–1911, his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 5 Dec. 1911, no. 22, ill., as Un Liseur, sold to Le Roy); [E. Le Roy, Paris, sold to Boussod, Valadon, 7 Dec. 1911]; [Boussod, Valadon, Paris, 1911–12, sold to Descamps Scrive, 20 Dec. 1912];³ Descamps Scrive, Lille (from 1912); [Knoedler, New York, sold to Clark, 30 Mar. 1929, as The Reader]; Robert Sterling Clark (1929–55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. 1. In the Goupil Stock Books, book 10, p. 10, no. 15155, there is a work by Meissonier titled Le Liseur that is listed as having been bought from Baron A. de Rothschild and sold to Secrétan. The seller may have been Adolphe de Rothschild, and although it is not identified in subsequent Goupil stock book entries, the work in question may well be the present painting. 2. See Goupil Stock Books, book 12, p. 122, no. 20088. 3. See Goupil Stock Books, book 15, p. 267, no. 30389.