Baron Pierre Joseph de Caters (died 1861), Antwerp, before 1861; his estate sale, Terbruggen, Antwerp, April 15, 1861, lot no. 2, as “Un vieux savant à barbe grise…” by Rembrandt. Probably Louis Lampe, Brussels, by 1906 when sold by him to Stillwell according to the 1927 Stillwell sale catalogue [this catalogue also asserts that the picture was in the collection of Prince Vladimir Potemkin]; John E. Stillwell, New York, probably from 1906; sold, Anderson Galleries, New York, December 1, 1927, lot no. 210, to Seidlitz and Van Baarn, New York, for $8,100 [buyer according to Art News, 1927, p. 120]. Chester D. Tripp (died 1974), Chicago, possibly as early as 1927 but at least by 1930 [registrar’s records of a loan to the Art Institute on June 17, 1930, R of O 4521, and Bredius 1931]; by descent to his widow, Jane B. Tripp (died 1988); bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1988.