Provenance: Early in last century with Julius Böhler, Munich (per label on base). Acquired by Dr. Alexander von Frey before 1929 as part of an extensive collection of sculpture, in particular the outstanding bronzes acquired with advice from von Bode and Planiscig. In 1951 the collection passed to Frey’s widow after whose death it was offered in 1988 as part of the entire Frey collection of almost two hundred works at Sotheby’s, London on 8 December 1988 as lot 112, estimated at 8000 – 12000 pounds sterling. Acquired by a private collector in New York and then by descent to present owner.

Published: Hans R. Weihrauch, Europäische Bronzestatuetten 15.-18. Jahrhundert, Braunschweig, 1967, pp.340-342, & fig. 416.

As published by Weihrauch, this statuette and several others of comparable subject, style and technique had been collectively attributed to a Franco-Flemish sculptor working into the first decade of the seventeenth century. Identified by the sobriquet Master of the Genre Figures, the group has more recently and with greater precision been credited to the entourage of atelier of Barthémy Prieur as part of the second school of Fontainbleau, and as such represents an important link in the development of the objectively neutral portrayal of rustic life by the Le Nain brothers as an essential element in the French national sensibility.