Possibly Sir Peter Gleane

His sale, London, Prestage, between 1745 and 1755, second day, no. 132: “A Sleeping Venus, Cupid, etc. –Le Seuer” [1]

Probably Louis François de Bourbon, Prince de Conti (1717-1776)

His first sale, 8 April 1777 (actually 10 May 1777): no. 621: "Vénus endormie surprise par l’amour” (no dimensions given)

Purchased by “Vautrin” for 201 livres (according to annotated catalogue in the Bibliothèque d’Art et d’Archéologie, Paris)

Anonymous sale, Paris, 96 rue de Cléry (expert: J.-A. Lebrun): 13 February 1793, no. 72 (50 ✕ 45 pouces [ca. 136 ✕ 122 cm]) [2]

Possibly Deville, 17 Place des Piques, Paris (according to inventory taken in 1794, no. 8, as by Vouet, ca. 145 x 129 cm)

Deposited with the rest of the Deville collection at Nesle, Paris, 27 or 28 December 1794

Returned to the ”widow Deville” with the rest of her husband’s collection, 21 October 1795

[O’Dwyer, Salisbury, ca. 1940-1968]

[Johannes Thermes, Dublin, 1969-1975]

[Art Associates Partnership, Bermuda, 1975]

Acquired by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1977


[1] Catalogue of Picture Sales in England 1711-1759, MS, 1:373, Victoria and Albert Museum, Forster Library 86-00-18
[2] Marguerite Sapin (1986, no. 5) suggests the following provenance for the years 1793-1795

1978-1979, Denver-New York-Minneapolis. ”Masterpieces of French Art: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.” Denver Art Museum, 26 December 1978 - 18 February 1979; New York, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., 14 March - 27 April 1979; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 24 May - 1 July 1979, no. 27.

1982, Paris-New York-Chicago. ”La peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines.” Paris, Grand Palais, 29 January - 26 April. ”France in the Golden Age: Seventeenth Century French Painting in American Collections.” New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 26 May - 22 August; The Art Institute of Chicago, 18 September - 28 November, no. 51, color repr. on 148.

Louis Dussieux. ”Nouvelles recherches sur la vie et les ouvrages de Le Sueur.” Archives de l'Art Français 2 (1852-1853): p. 118, engraving on 122.

Gabriel Rouchès. Eustache Le Sueur. Paris: Alcan, 1923, p. 53 (as lost).

”La Chronique des Arts.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts (March 1978): p. 44, fig. 198.

Marjorie B. Cohn and Susan L. Siegfried. Works by J.-A.-D. Ingres in the Collection of the Fogg Art Museum. Cambridge: Fogg Art Museum-Harvard University, 1980, p. 116.

Thomas P. Lee. ”Recently Acquired French Paintings: Reflections on the Past.” Apollo 111, no. 217 (March 1980): p. 214, pl. 29 on 217.

Pierre Rosenberg. ”La peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections des Etats-Unis.” La Revue du Louvre, no. 1 (1982): p. 74.

Pierre Rosenberg. ”Le siècle d'or.” Connaissance des Arts, no. 360 (February 1982): p. 80, repr. in color, 82.

”La peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines.” Le Petit Journal des Grandes Expositions, no. 116 (1982): fig. 51.

Alain Mérot. ”Eustache Lesueur et ses graveurs (1635-1655): Un ensemble incomplet.” Nouvelles de l'Estampe, no. 69 (May-June 1983): pp. 8, 13.

Pierre Rosenberg. ”France in the Golden Age: A Postscript.” Metropolitan Museum Journal, no. 17 (1984): p. 30, no. 51.

William R. Wilson. The Los Angeles Times Book of California Museums. New York: Abrams, 1985, p. 73.

Christopher Wright. The French Painters of the Seventeenth Century. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1985, pp. 220, 285.

Marguerite Sapin. ”Précisions sur l'histoire de quelques tableaux d'Eustache Le Sueur.” Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de l’art français 1984 (1986): p. 57, no. 5.

Alain Mérot. Eustache Le Sueur 1616-1655. Neuilly-sur-Seine: Arthéna, 1987, no. 14, repr.

Pierre Rosenberg and Marion C. Stewart. French Paintings 1500-1825: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. San Francisco: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1987, pp. 69-73, repr.