Portrait of a Scholar

Sir Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper [1834-1905], by 1881;{1} probably by inheritance to Ethel Grenfell, Lady Desborough [1867-1952], about 1913;{2} auctioned at (Christie's, Manson & Woods, London, England) in 1953.{3} Probably purchased by Engel.{4} (David M. Koetser Gallery, New York, New York);{5} Colonel and Mrs. A.W.S. Herrington, Indiananpolis, Indiana; given to the John Herron Art Institute, now the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, 1957.{6} {1} Algernon Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions: 1813-1912, London, 1913, p. 73. Graves states that a painting listed as Bol's Man with Grey Hair (28 x 22 ¼ in.) was exhibited as no. 169 in the Winter Exhibition at the Royal Academy, London in 1881 with owner's name given as the Earl of Cowper. The painting was still in Cowper's possession in 1885, see Mary Louise Boyle, Biographical Catalogue of the Portraits at Panshanger, the Seat of Earl Cowper, London, 1885, no. 2. {2} Francis the 7th Earl Cowper and his wife Katrine had no children. Upon Katrine's death in 1913 the Cowper estate, including presumably the painting collection, was inherited by her niece Ethel, wife of William Henry Grenfell, Baron Desborough [1855-1945]. {3} Christie, Manson & Woods, London, Ancient and Modern Pictures and Drawings forming part of the Cowper Collection from Panshanger, 16 October 1953, no. 20. {4} See Albert Blankert, Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680): Rembrandt's Pupil, Doornspijk, 1982, no. 115 (illustration) {5} Correspondence from Arthur W. Herrington to IMA, dated 13 December 1957, states that he obtained the painting from the David M. Koetser Gallery, New York. {6} IMA Temporary Receipt No. 6416