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Provenance

Private collection, Lower Rhine, in 1926; sold 1926 to Walter Kurt Rohde, Berlin; sold May 1926 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[1] sold December 1926 to Andrew W. Mellon [1835-1937], Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 30 March 1932 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Los Angeles: reel 154, box 299, folder 14; copies in NGA curatorial files. See also Jonathan Lopez' book (The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren, New York, 2008: 54, 58-61, 64-69, 86, 94-96, 103, 112-115), and article (“The Early Vermeers of Han van Meegeren,” Apollo [July-August 2008]: 22-29).

Exhibition History
1929
Exhibition of Dutch Art 1450-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1929, no. 317, as Head of a Young Girl by Johannes Vermeer.
2015
The Art of Sleuthing, Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery, Greenville, South Carolina, 2015-2017, no catalogue.
Bibliography
1926
"A Portrait by Vermeer." Apollo (December 1926): 231, color repro.
1926
Bode, Wilhelm von. "Vermeer." In Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 47 (1926): 251, repro.
1926
Dayot, Armand. "Un Portrait Inconnu par Vermeer de Delft." L'Art et les Artistes (October 1926): 33, repro.
1928
"America Lends Dutch Paintings to London Show." Art News (29 December 1928): 1, repro. 14.
1928
Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "A Newly Discovered Vermeer." Art in America (April 1928): 101-107, repro.
1929
Gibson, William. "The Dutch Exhibition at Burlington House." Apollo 9 (January 1929): 81, color repro. 116.
1929
Hofstede de Groot, C. Jan Vermeer of Delft. Amsterdam, 1929: 5, no. 50, repro.
1929
International Studio (January 1929): 65.
1932
Bredius, Abraham. "An Unpublished Vermeer." The Burlington Magazine 61 (October 1932): 145.
1935
Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935: 190, repro. (English ed., Masterpieces of European Painting in America. New York, 1939: 190, repro.).
1937
Hale, Philip Leslie. Vermeer. Edited by Frederick W. Coburn and Ralph T. Hale. Boston, 1937: 134-135, repro.
1937
"The Mellon Collection. A National Art Gallery for America." The Connoisseur (March 1937): 140-141, repro.
1940
Goldscheider, Ludwig. The Paintings of Jan Vermeer. New York, 1940: 5.
1941
Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 216, repro., as by Jan Vermeer.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 209, no. 55, as by Jan Vermeer.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 240, repro. 34, as by Jan Vermeer.
1943
Apollo 38 (July 1943): cover repro.
1945
Vries, Ary Bob de. Jan Vermeer van Delft. Basel, 1945: 113, no. 19.
1948
Kurz, Otto. Fakes: A Handbook for Collectors and Students. London, 1948: 58.
1948
Vries, Ary Bob de. Jan Vermeer van Delft. Translated by Robert Allen. Revised ed. London and New York, 1948: 97, pl. 35.
1949
Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 34, repro., as by Jan Vermeer.
1950
Swillens, P. T. A. Johannes Vermeer: Painter of Delft, 1632–1675. Translated by C.M. Breuning-Williamson. Utrecht, 1950: 65-66, no. I.
1958
Goldscheider, Ludwig. Jan Vermeer: The Paintings. London, 1958: 144, no. 8.
1965
National Gallery of Art. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. Washington, 1965: 135, as by Vermeer.
1968
Bianconi, Piero. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Vermeer. Paris, 1968: no. 16.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 122, repro., as by Vermeer.
1970
Richard, Paul. "The Mystery of the Two Vermeers." The Washington Post (12 February 1970): B1, B12.
1973
Fahy, Everett, and Francis John Bagott Watson. The Wrightsman Collection. Vol. 5: Paintings, drawings, sculpture. New York, 1973: 319.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 364, repro., as Follower of Vermeer.
1995
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. "The Story of Two Vermeer Forgeries." In Shop Talk: Studies in Honor of Seymour Slive, Presented on His Seventy-fifth Birthday. Cambridge, Mass., 1995: 271-275, 426 fig. 2, as by Imitator of Johannes Vermeer (probably Theodorus van Wijngaarden).
2001
Franits, Wayne E., ed. The Cambridge companion to Vermeer. Cambridge, England, and New York, 2001: 173-176, fig. 62, as by Theodorus van Wijngaarden.
2008
Dolnick, Edward. The Forger’s Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century. New York, 2008: 107, 108, 109-111, 118, 119, 140n, 306n, color plate, as by Theo van Wijngaarden.
2008
Fenton, Roger. "Victims of Vermeermania." The New York Review of Books 55, no. 17 (November 6, 2008): 58.
2008
Lopez, Jonathan. The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegeren. New York, 2008: 54, 59, 61, 64-71, 86, 94-96, 103, 112-113, 115, 228-240, repro., as by Han van Meegeren.
2008
Lopez, Jonathan. "Van Meegeren's Early Vermeers." Apollo (July-August 2008): 22-29, fig. 9, as by Han van Meegeren.
2013
Harris, Neil. Capital Culture: J. Carter Brown, the National Gallery of Art, and the Reinvention of the Museum Experience. Chicago and London, 2013: 221.
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