Provenance
'Peasants under the Trees at Dawn' was given by the artist to the painter William Wyld (1806–1889)14; his sale, 30 May 1890, lot 136 (600 francs)15; with Galerie Paul Rosenberg, Paris; in the collection of Albert Sancholle Henraux (1881–1953) by 1930, when exhibited at the Galerie Rosenberg, thus indicating that Henraux probably bought it from Rosenberg himself.16 Henraux was curator at the Musée Condé in Chantilly, president of the Société des Amis du Louvre, vice-president of the Conseil des Musées Nationaux and director of France’s Commission de Récupération Artistique at the end of World War II; in the collection of Tony Mayer (born 1902) by 194917; French by birth, Mayer was a long-time employee of the French Embassy in London, and in 1959 published La Vie Anglaise, a factual book about life in England. He lent this picture to the Galerie Daber, Paris, in 1951, and he was still living in 1968. In 1957 a sale of part of his collection, with the catalogue written by his friend Jean Dieterle: Collection de m. Tony Mayer – dessins anciens, tableaux modernes, 18 aquarelles par Delacroix, took place at Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 3 December 1957, but this painting was not included. The initials JD, which are written in red paint on the back of the painting, possibly refer to Jean Dieterle; with Galerie Daber, from whom purchased by the National Gallery, 1977.