
Inscribed on the verso of the old Richardson mount, at upper center (below Richardson's press marks), in an unknown hand (possibly that of Henry Reveley), in graphite, "The departure of the Angel from Abraham; / Purchased in 1783 at Mr. Forster's Sale"; and below this, also in graphite, "JC Robinson (signature)".
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, I, 197, repr. (as Rembrandt).
Stampfle, Felice and Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann. Rembrandt Drawings from American Collections. Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum; New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1960, no. 70, repr.
Jane Shoaf Turner, with contributions by Felice Stampfle, Dutch Drawings in the Pierpont Morgan Library: Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries, New York, 2006, cat. no. 62.
Watermark: none visible through lining with fiber optic light.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669, Formerly attributed to.
Richardson, Jonathan, 1665-1745, former owner.
Forster, Ingham, former owner.
Reveley, Henry, 1737-1798, former owner.
Reveley, Hugh, 1772-1851? former owner
Reveley, Hugh John, 1812-1889, former owner.
Robinson, J. C. (John Charles), Sir, 1824-1913, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.