Still Life with Goose and Game before a Country Estate

Gerret Braamcamp [1699-1771], Amsterdam, by 1752;[1] (his estate sale, Philippe van der Schley, Amsterdam, 31 July 1771 and days following, no. 257); John Hope [1737-1784], Amsterdam;[2] his estate, Amsterdam and London; by inheritance to his youngest son, Henry Philip Hope [1774-1839], London;[3] by inheritance to his nephew, Henry Thomas Hope [1808-1862], London and Deepdene, near Dorking, Surrey;[4] by inheritance to his widow, Adèle Bichat Hope [d. 1884], London and Deepdene; by inheritance to her grandson, Henry Francis Hope Pelham-Clinton-Hope, 8th duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme [1866-1941], London, Deepdene, and Clumber Park, Nottingham.[5] (Galerie Charles Brunner, Paris), by 1923.[6] Mme G. Brière, 1928. acquired c. 1930 by private collection, Paris; by descent in this family;[7] (sale, Sotheby's, New York, 23 January 2003, no. 21, as _A Still Life of Game by a Stone Monument, including, a Swan, a Hare, Game Birds, a Spaniel, a Jay and a Pigeon in Flight, an Extensive Water Garden Beyond_, bought in); purchased 10 March 2004 by NGA by private contract with (Sotheby's). [1] Gerard Hoet, _Catalogus of naamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen. . ._ 3 vols., The Hague, 1752: 2:511. [2] For a detailed account of the Hope Collection and the family history, see J.W. Niemeijer, "De kunstverzameling van John Hope (1737-1784)," _Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek_ 32 (1981): 127-232; see also Marten G. Buist, _At Spes Non Fracta: Hope & Co. 1770–1815: Merchant Bankers and Diplomats at Work_, The Hague, 1974: 42-43, 49. John Hope's estate, which was left to his three sons--Thomas (1769-1831), Adrian Elias (1772-1834) and Henry Philip (1774-1839)--was administered by the children's mother, Philippina Barbara van der Hoeven and their father's cousin, Henry Hope (c. 1739-1811), who ran the family firm. After the mother's death in 1789, Henry Hope assumed control of the collection of paintings in Amsterdam. In 1791 the three sons received the division of their mother's estate and a partial division of their father's estate. The collection of paintings was not divided, however, but remained in the estate. On 18 June 1794, Thomas Hope, having attained his legal majority, received his inheritance, but he received no part of the collection, which continued to remain in his father's estate, and which was taken by Henry Hope to London in 1794 when he and other members of the family fled the invading French army. In London, Henry Hope maintained possession of the collection, and on 17 December 1795 he signed insurance lists of "Pictures in the House No. 1 the corner of Harley Street, belonging to Mr. Henry Hope." [3] It is not clear when, and for what reason, Henry Philip Hope became the sole heir of the paintings, but he seems to have inherited the collection no later than 1819. After Henry Hope's death in 1811, possession of the collection presumably went to Thomas Hope, with whom it remained because of Henry Philip Hope's peripatetic life (see: Niemeijer 1981, 169). Thomas kept most of the paintings in his two London residences; first at 2, Hanover Square and, after 1819, off Portland Place in Duchess Street, where he designed and built a special gallery to house the collection (see: David Watkin, _Thomas Hope 1769-1831 and the Neo-Classical Idea_, London, 1968: 93). NGA 2004.39.1 was seen in Thomas Hope's cabinet by C.M. Westmacott (_British Galleries of Painting and Sculpture..._, London, 1824: 237). [4] Henry Thomas Hope maintained the property and its collections on Duchess Street until 1851, when he moved to a new residence in Piccadilly (see: Niemeijer 1981, 170; and Ben Broos et al., _Great Dutch Paintings from America_, exh. cat., Mauritshuis, The Hague; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, The Hague, 1990: 422.) [5] Lord Pelham-Clinton-Hope lent the painting to the South Kensington Museum in London from 1891 to 1898. The 2003 Sotheby's sale catalogue indicates that the painting was sold at a Christie, Manson & Woods sale in London, 25-27 July 1917, as lot no. 292. However, this sale (one of several Hope sales in 1917) was a sale of the Hope library, and lot no. 292 was a book by Sir H.C. Englefield, _Walk through Southampton_. The Hope sale at Christie's on 20 July 1917, of "pictures by old masters and family portraits," included only 127 lots and no painting by Weenix is listed in the catalogue. [6] The date is according to a photograph in the Witt Library fiche. There is a red wax seal on the reverse of the painting's stretcher, embossed "GALERIE BRUNNER." [7] According to the provenance in the 2003 Sotheby's sale catalogue.