Duc de Mailly; Théodore Richard [1782-1859], Paris; (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 19-20 and 22 March 1858, no. 176, with sitter misidentified as Portrait of Bouffon). (sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 27 March 1877, no. 42, with sitter misidentified as Portrait of Bouffon); Gustave Rothan; (his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 29-31 May 1890, no. 176, as Portrait of a Man); L. Cahen d'Anvers,[1] Paris, by 1900; A. de Rothschild, by 1906; (Thos. Agnew and Sons, Ltd., London), by 4 May 1936; comte X...; (his sale, Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris, 18 March 1937, lot A); purchased by Damidot.[2] (Galerie Cailleux, Paris), by 1952;[3] purchased 1954 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] In all probability, the French banker comte Louis-Raphaël Cahen d'Anvers (1837-1922); see Colin Bailey's entry for Renoir's Portrait of Alice and Élisabeth Cahen d'Anvers (Museu de Arte de Sao Paolo Assis Chateaubriand), in Colin Bailey, Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age, exh. cat.; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Art Institute of Chicago; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth; New Haven, 1997: 180-182, no. 38, and notes on 306-307.

[2] This was reported in the Gazette de l'Hôtel Drouot, 20 March 1937: 1.

[3] The painting was lent by Cailleux to the 1952 exhibition at the Galerie Charpentier in Paris.

• 1746 Salon of 1746, Paris, no. 67, as M. Bonier de la Mosson dans son cabinet.
• 1878 Tableaux anciens et modernes, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, 1878, no. 195, as Portrait de Buffon.
• 1883 L'art du XVIIIe Siècle, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1883-1884, no. 111, as Portrait d'homme.
• 1900 Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1900, no. 208.
• 1932 Exhibition of French Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1932, no. 2239 (no. 205 of first catalogue).
• 1952 Cent portraits d'hommes du XIVe siècle à nos jours, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 1952, no. 70, repro.
• 1999 Jean-Marc Nattier: 1685-1766, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, 1999-2000, no. 42, repro.
• 2011 Paris: Life & Luxury in the Eighteenth Century, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2011-2012, no. 93, repro.