Provenance

Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (1863 –1930), The Hague (Lugt 561), by 1930; probably sale, C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, November 4, 1931, lot 319 (as Esselens); sold to Dr. Maximilian Steif (1881–1942), Brno, Czechoslovakia, November 4, 1931 [see note 1]. With Shickman Gallery, New York, by 1967 (as Dutch, 17th century); sold to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1967

Note 1: According to an annotated sale catalogue from the C.G. Boerner sale records (Email from C.G. Boerner, Düsseldorf, to the Gallery, September 10, 2021, copy in accession file). Dr. Maximilian Steif (1881–1942) was a Czech art historian who trained at the University of Vienna. An independent researcher and expert in Medieval and Baroque art in Moravia, Steif contributed to exhibitions at the Mahrischer Kunstverein, in Brno. He also worked as an advisor and dealer of Old Master paintings by Brno-German artists and established his own small collection of Old Master works of art. As a Jew in Nazi-annexed Czechoslovakia, Steif was persecuted and deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto, January 28, 1942. On June 13, 1942, Steif was transferred to the Sobibor death camp in Poland, where he was murdered.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Between 2021 and 2024, the Gallery conducted further research on Steif and his collection, including within archives in former Czechoslovakia. During the widespread looting and confiscation of cultural property that occurred in Nazi-occupied Europe, the fate of Maximilian Steif’s collection, including the Eeckhout, remains unknown. The Gallery welcomes any information that would add to our understanding of the drawing and its ownership history.

This work appears on our "Artworks with Nazi-Era Provenance Documentation Gaps" page.