Presumably John Loftus, 2nd Marquess of Ely (died 1845), husband of the sitter; by descent to John Henry Loftus, 5th Marquess of Ely; his sale Christie’s, London, July 25, 1891, lot 68 for £241.10s to Agnew [price and buyer according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague, copy in curatorial file]; Thomas Agnew & Sons, London; sold to T. H. Ismay, June 2, 1892 [according to a letter from Gabriel M. Naughton, Agnew’s, to Malcolm Warner dated March 19, 1993, copy in curatorial file]; evidently Ismay sold it back to Agnew almost immediately, in July 1892 [according to Agnew stock book, no. 6529, located in the Getty Research Institute; copy in curatorial file, kindly provided by Derek Quezada]; sold by Agnew’s to R. Hall McCormick (died 1917), Chicago, September 20, 1892 [see stock book cited above]; his estate sale, American Art Galleries, New York, April 15, 1920, lot 62 for $18,000 to “Seaman, agent” [price and buyer according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Art Institute, copy in curatorial file]. Alice H. Brown (Mrs. Marshall Ludington Brown, formerly Mrs. Cyrus McCormick II; died 1950); given to the Art Institute from her estate, 1951 [according to the Committee on Painting and Sculpture meeting notes, April 19, 1951, copy in curatorial file].