Provenance:
The Dowager Marchioness of Tweeddale et al., sale at Christie, Manson & Woods, London, May 1st, 1970, Lot 107 (as A. Brouwer) (the lot number is stenciled on the verso of the panel); where acquired by Capt. Luke Kerr of Dublin and London; by descent until 2002.

Museums and Collections:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Wallace Collection, London; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna; The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; Kunstmuseum, Basel; Museum Bredius, The Hague; Residenzgalerie, Salzburg; Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt; Gemäldegalerie, Dresden; Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp; Alte Pinakothek, Munich; Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig.

A student of Frans Hals, Adriaen Brouwer worked in both Flanders and The Netherlands. Given his short life, his influence was truly extraordinary. Along with Teniers and the van Ostades, Brouwer was heir to the tradition of genre and common-life painting of Bosch and Bruegel.

His time there was certainly not wasted, if we are to believe the wonderful legacy he has handed down to us. He is the master of the grotesque. Debauchery, drunkenness and foolishness all fall within the compass of this wonderful artist's brush. His work seems to have been entirely on a small scale. The detail and insight are a joy to behold.

A panel, virtually identical to our own but repeated in reverse, is in the collection of the Residenzgalerie, Salzburg.