? Collection Jan Six (1618-1700) and Margaretha Tulp (1632-1709), Amsterdam; ? their daughter Margaretha Six (1666-1718), Amsterdam;{An old inscription in ink on the reverse of the panel reads ‘Margrita Six’. Van de Wetering et al. 2011, pp. 387-8 identifies her as the daughter of Jan Six and Margaretha Tulp, who may, therefore, have been the original owners.} …; collection Philippe Duc d’Orléans (1674-1723), Cabinet du lit jaune, Palais Royal, Paris, as Rembrandt, by 1720;{Richardson 1722, p. 21 (‘A Woman reading to her Mother, while the Old Woman nods in, rocking the Cradle, where her Grandchild sleeps: The same Size as the finish’d Drawing my father has, and exactly the same, as far a Drawing and Picture can be. All the good properties of a Picture (of this subject) are here in a very high Degree, and some as high as one can conceive ‘t is possible to raise them. They are plain People, and in a Cottage; and Nature and Humour must be instead of Grace and Greatness; the Expression is exquisite; the Colouring warm, and transparent; a vast number of Parts put together with utmost Harmony; and for the Clair-Obscure it may stand in Competition with the Notte of Correggio, or any other picture.’ Richardson would have seen the painting in 1720 when he was in France before going on to Italy.} his sale, Paris (D’Argenson), 9 June 1727, p. 11, as Rembrandt (‘Un Vieillard, une Femme & un Enfant au berceau sujet de nuit. Toille. Hauteur 1 pied 10 pouces. Largeur 2 pied 4 pouces [59.5 x 75.8 cm]’), unsold; by descent to his great-grandson, Louis Philippe Joseph d’Orléans (1747-93), known as Philippe Égalité, Paris and Château du Raincy; from whom purchased with the other Dutch and Flemish paintings in the Orléans collection through the mediation of Thomas Moore Slade, by Lord Kinniard, Mr Morland and Mr Hammersley, 1792 and exhibited for sale at 125 Pall Mall, London, April 1793;{Buchanan 1824, I, pp. 159-65; London 1793, no. 34 (‘Cradle by Rembrandt’)}; from whom, 1,000 gns, to Richard Payne Knight (1750-1824), Downton Castle, Herefordshire;{Buchanan 1824, I, p. 196.} by descent to William Mandeville Peareth Kincaid Lennox (1892-1969), with Downton Castle, Herefordshire; from whom, £ 610,000, through the dealer Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd., London, to the museum, with support from the Vereniging Rembrandt, the Prins Bernhard Fonds and the Fotocommissie; on loan to Museum Het Rembrandthuis, 2011-14
