On the stretcher the owner's label with the crowned monogram for Prince Peter Antonovich of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

Provenance: Prince Peter Antonovich of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1745–1798), The Russian Court in Horsens. Subsequently acquired by the family of the Danish explorer Vitus Bering (1681–1741), Horsens, and owned by Danish descendants until today.

In the years 1780–1807 Horsens housed a Russian court in exile, called The Russian Court in Horsens. It consisted of four siblings, namely Princess Catharina Antonovna (1741–1807), Princess Elizabeth Antonovna (1743–1782), Prince Peter Antonovich (1745–1798) and Prince Alexei Antonovich (1746–1787). They were the children of Grand Duchess Anna Leopoldovna of Russia (1718–1746) and Duke Anton Ulrik of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1714–1774). Until the establishment of the Russian Court in Horsens, the four siblings had been imprisoned for about 35 years in Kholmogory near Archangelsk in Russia. The imprisonment was the result of a power struggle for the Russian throne, which their mother and older brother, Tsar Ivan VI of Russia (1740–1764), lost in 1741 to Tsaritsa Elisabeth Petrovna of Russia (1709–1762). Queen Juliane Marie of Denmark (1729–1796), the widow of King Frederik V of Denmark, was the sister of the children's father. The Danish Queen negotiated with Tsaritsa Catherine the Great and had her nephews and nieces sailed to Denmark, after which she paid for their stay at the Russian Court in Horsens.The four siblings were all buried in the monastery church in Horsens.

Vitus Jonassen Bering was a Danish naval officer who went into Russian service. This is the reason why he is also known by the Russian name Ivan Ivanovich Bering. Among others, he mapped Russia's eastern regions for Tsar Peter the Great, and later the Arctic coast of Siberia for Tsaritsa Anna Ioannovna of Russia, the four siblings mother's aunt. Vitus Bering's family presumabty acquired this painting due to the Russian connections between him, Russia and the Tsar family.