Provenance: Jeanne-Baptiste d’Albert de Luynes, comtesse de Verrue [1670-1736], Paris, by at least 1734;[1] (her estate sale, at her residence, Paris, 27 March 1737, no. 103, with pendant). Pierre-Louis-Paul Randon de Boisset [1709-1776], Paris; (his estate sale, by Pierre Remy, Paris, 27 February 1777 and days following, no. 89, with pendant); Nicolas Poullain; (his estate sale, by J.B.P. Le Brun at Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, 15 March 1780 and days following, no. 56, with pendant); Du Lac. Louis, 4th duc de Noailles, Maréchal de France [1713-1793], Paris, in 1781. Christophe-Nicolas de Montribloud [?-1786], Paris; (his sale, by Paillet and Julliot at Hôtel de Bullion, Paris, 9-12 February 1784, 4th day, no. 54, with pendant); Pouillet. Peter Burrell, 1st baron Gwydyr [1754-1820], Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire, and London; (his estate sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 9 May 1829, no. 74, as _The Return from the Chase_); Richard Foster, probably for Henry Bevan, Esq. [1776-1860], London.[2] A. Rofe, Esq. (sale, Sotheby’s, London, 8 July 1859, no. 52); Manning. (David Koetser Gallery, Zurich, and Leonard Koetser Gallery, London); sold 1959 to Leslie Lavy [d. 2005], London; his estate; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 6 July 2010, no. 18); (Richard Green, London); sold November 2010 to private collection, United States; purchased 14 February 2019 through (Richard Green, London) by NGA.
[1] The Comtesse was a pioneering collector of Dutch paintings, and owned more than a dozen works by Wouwerman. In 1734, Jean Moyreau made a large engraving after the NGA painting, titling it _Fête et adieux des chasseurs_, one of a series of sixteen engravings after Wouwerman works that could be bound as a set. See: Jean Moyreau, _Oeuvres de Philips Wouwerman, Hollandais, Gravées d’après ses Meilleurs Tableaux qui sont dans les plus beaux cabinets de Paris et ailleurs_, Paris, 1737: 62, no. 16; Frederik Duparc and Quentin Buvelot, _Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668)_, exh. cat., Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel; Mauritshuis, The Hague, Munich, 2009: 55, 132 fig. 30b; J. Scott, “The Comtesse de Verrue: A Lover of Dutch and Flemish Art,” _Apollo_ (January 1973): 20-24.
[2] Gustav Friedrich Waagen (_Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss._, 3 vols., translated by Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake, London, 1854: 2:252) visited Bevan's collection in 1835, and noted "a choice collection of the Dutch school, among which are beautiful specimens" by Wouwermans and other Dutch artists. See also Gustav Friedrich Waagen, _Works of Art and Artists in England_, 3 vols., translated by H.E. Lloyd, London, 1838: 2:398-399.