Collection of Protheroe (?), until 1810; included in the sale of property of the 6th Earl of Coventry and others, Christie’s, London, 16-17 February 1810 (sold 17 February), no. 94 as Jan Both (style of); bought by Sale (?); collection of Verdi Killicoat Burmeister (1894–1956)[1], Unley, Adelaide, South Australia, by 1956; by whom bequeathed to the Art Gallery of South Australia, 1956[2]; subsequently sold, Theodore Bruce (auction house), Adelaide, 14 June 1957, lot no. undetermined[3]; bought from this sale by Dr John Orde Poynton (1906–2001); his collection, Melbourne, 1957–80; by whom donated, through The Art Foundation of Victoria, to the NGV, 1980.
[1] Burmeister is buried at West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide. He was the son of Charles Frederick Burmeister (1857–1941), a tenor, and Marion Maude Burmeister (1868–1932, nee Killicoat). His grandfather was Heinrich Wilhelm Burmeister (1818–1907), a German pioneer who arrived in the 1840s, not long after the Colony of South Australia was founded (1836). From the obituary, H.W. Burmeister made his fortune on the Victorian goldfields before returning to Adelaide to pursue a trade as a mason. He made regular trips to Europe in the late nineteenth century. After his death, his will was contested by his estranged children and his widow. The ensuing probate dispute (June – July 1908) was covered extensively by local newspapers.
[2] Objects from the bequest were deemed unsuitable for the Art Gallery of South Australia (then known as National Gallery of South Australia) and, with the agreement of the family (possibly sister Daisy Maud Salotti, nee Burmeister, d. 1970), were sold at auction. Some pictures were retained including a Flemish wood panel painting; a portrait of Louis XIV, and Quayside, by Frances Hodgkins. See Bulletin of the National Gallery of South Australia, vol. 18, no. 4, 1957.
[3] Proceeds from the sale formed AGSA’s VK Burmeister Bequest Fund and used for acquisitions. The sale catalogue contains very few details and descriptions of lots. The Both painting could be Lot 1, Dutch Oil; Lot 7, Small oil on Wood, or; Lot 76, Dutch School.