Provenance

Purchased from the artist by Thomas Agnew & Sons (Agnew’s), 1 April 1863 (600 guineas); purchased from Agnew’s by John Graham, 10 August 1863; bought back from him by Agnew’s, 8 June 1864; purchased from Agnew’s by Kirkman Finlay, 16 October 1865; bought back from him by Agnew’s, 22 March 1869, for Ralph Brocklebank; his posthumous sale, Christie’s, London, 29 April 1893, lot 81; purchased by Stone (210 guineas); purchased by Kojiro Matsukata, ca. 1920; pledged by Matsukata to save his business, Kawasaki Dockyard Co., Ltd., Kobe and then seized by Fujimoto Bill Broker Bank, Osaka, 1927; 1st Matsukata sale, Tokyo, 13–30 March 1928, lot 55, repr.; private collection, Japan; acquired by the previous owner, Tokyo, 2018; purchased by NMWA, 5 October 2020.

Exhibition History

1863

95th Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 0  1863 - 0  1863, cat. no. 498.

1868

National Exhibition of Works of Art, Leeds, 0  1868 - 0  1868, cat. no. 1450.

1886

Grand Loan Exhibition of Pictures from Lancashire Collections, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 0  1886 - 0  1886, cat. no. 40.

2023

Another 19th Century: Bouguereau, Millais, and the Academic Painters, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 19 September 2023 - 12 February 2024, cat. no. 24

Bibliography

1862

The account book of Millais, 1862, “Wolf’s Den / Evie’s head painted / in one hour” (finished in 1863).

1891

Magazine of Art. 1891, p. 89, repr.

1894

Chesneau, Ernest. Peintres Anglais contemporains. John Everett Millais. L’Art, vol. 59, 1894, pp. 241–242.

1898

Spielmann, Marion H. Millais and His Works. Edinburgh, 1898, pp. 64, 165, 170 (no. 86), 184.

1899

Millais, John Guille. The Life and Letters of John Everett Millais, President of the Royal Academy. 1899, vol. 1, p. 374, vol. 2, pp. 17, 343, 472.

1978

Robertson, David. Sir Charles Eastlake and the Victorian Art World. Princeton, 1978, p. 413.

1980

Surtees, Virginia. The Diaries of George Price Boyce. Norwich, 1980, p. 37.

1990

The Old Matsukata Collection, Kobe City Museum ed. 1990, p. 276 (no. 1035).

2018

The Matsukata Collection. Complete Catalogue of the European Art. Kawaguchi, Masako; Jingaoka, Megumi ed. The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2018, vol. 1, no. 751, repr.

2022

Annual Bulletin of the National Museum of Western Art. No. 55 (Apr. 2020-Mar. 2021), 2022, Jingaoka, Megumi. New Acquisitions. pp. 10-11, List of New Acquisitions. p. 18, col. repr.

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