Gift of Jan and Ellen Mitchell, New York, through the America-Israel Cultural Foundation
This drawing belonged to Jacques Goudstikker, a noted Dutch art dealer and collector who was forced to leave his art collection behind in Amsterdam when he fled in 1940 following the German invasion. Goudstikker died in an accident while en route to England. The Degas drawing was confiscated by the Nazis and later that year included in an auction at Frederik Muller & Co. There is no record of the purchaser, but after the war it appeared in the collection of Myrtil Frank of The Hague. In 1949 it turned up in an auction at New York’s Wildenstein Gallery. In 1966 the drawing was purchased from the Marlborough Gallery by Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell, who gifted it to The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, in 1970.
The drawing was identified and returned in 2005 to Marei von Saher, Mr. Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law and heir, following an investigation conducted by her together with the Museum.
