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Created by Henry Fuseli (1741–1825), the artist [1][a][b]; acquired by Thomas Johnes (1748–1816) [2], Hafod Uchtryd, Ceredigion, Wales by 1813 [3][c][d]; transferred to Henry Pelham-Clinton, fourth Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne (1785–1851), Hafod Uchtryd, Ceredigion, Wales, 1833 [4][e][f]; ...; acquired by William Henry John North, eleventh Baron North (1836–1932), Kirtling Tower, Cambridgeshire, England by 1889 [5][g]; ...; acquired by Ewan Phillips (1914–1994), London, England by 1968 [6][h]; acquired by Leger Galleries, Ltd., London, England, 1968 [i]; purchased by Paul Mellon (1907–1999), 1968 [j]; by whom given to the Yale Center for British Art, 1981.

Notes:
[1] In 1806, Fuseli put the painting up for exhibition and sale with two others at the British Institution, indicating that it remained in his possession at least up until this year. The painting was displayed in the Middle Room as no. 55, ‘Christ disappearing at Emaus’ [sic]. While the two other pictures Fuseli exhibited were documented as unsold, the status of this painting’s possible sale is unknown.

[2] Thomas Johnes was a Welsh politician, writer, and farmer best known for his extensive landscaping and renovation projects at the historic Hafod estate in Ceredigion, Wales. A 1795 letter to friend and patron William Roscoe (1753–1831) reveals that Fuseli knew Johnes and had fulfilled a commission for him. In 1803, Johnes commissioned the construction of a small Gothic-style church to replace an existing structure on the property. A visitor account in the 1813 edition of George Nicholson’s The Cambrian Traveller's Guide reveals that this painting was spotted in Johnes’ church. Notably, the 1808 guide makes no mention of the painting. Since Fuseli and Johnes had previous contact, it is possible that Fuseli directly sold the painting to him during or shortly after the British Institution exhibition.

[3] The painting seemed to have remained at the church in the years following Johnes’ vacation of the property in 1814. Although Johnes procured a prospective buyer before his death in 1816, disagreements between his estate executors and the prospective buyer placed the property into an 18-year chancery suit. The property was finally put up for sale again in 1832, which included all the paintings, furniture, wines, and other internal holdings left behind by Johnes. In 1833, the Duke of Newcastle made a successful bid and became the new owner of both Hafod and this painting.

[4] Henry Pelham-Clinton, fourth Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, was a British nobleman and politician who served as a leading figure in the arguments against Catholic Emancipation and electoral reform. While the property had been up for public auction since 1832, the Duke of Newcastle made a successful, final bid for Hafod in March 1833. His purchase included all internal holdings left behind by Johnes, presumably including this painting. The duke later lent the painting among others to the British Institution’s 1844 exhibition as no. 134, ‘Our Saviour at Emmaus.’ Due to external pressures regarding his political stances, the Duke of Newcastle put Hafod up for sale again in 1845. While advertisements suggest the inclusion of household objects, it is unknown if the painting was included in the sale.

[5] William Henry John North, eleventh Baron North, served as Lieutenant in the 1st Life Guards and held the office of Justice of the Peace (J.P.) before he succeeded to the North title upon the death of his mother, Susan North, tenth Baroness North (1797–1884). The entry for Fuseli in the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography mentions that this painting was then in the possession of Lord North at Kirling Tower, Newmarket.
Notably, the baron's great-grandfather, the British banker Thomas Coutts (1735–1822), was one of Fuseli’s most important patrons. Furthermore, his daughter, Susan North (née Coutts), Countess of Guilford (1771–1837), remained close friends with Fuseli and the artist died at her Putney Hill home in 1823. The family’s status as Roman Catholics and historic relationship with Fuseli may explain Lord North’s interest in the painting.

[6] Ewan Phillips, was an art historian and art dealer, based for most of his life in London. His father, Godfrey Van Zwanenberg Phillips (1887–1953), owned an art gallery that associated with contemporary artists such as Matthew Smith, Leon Underwood, Ronald Ossory Dunlop and Jacob Epstein. Phillips’ mother, Rose Dorothy Phillips (née Jacobs) (1886-1986) served as a model for some of Epstein’s sculptures. Phillips was an early student of the newly founded Courtauld Institute prior to World War II, where he was involved in anti-fascist demonstrations and organized exhibitions of German art offering counternarratives to Nazi government led curations of art within Germany.
In 1939, he aided with the evacuation of objects held by the National Gallery, London to depositories in Wales for the duration of the war. Following his time in the Intelligence Corps of the British Army during World War II, Phillips joined the Monuments, Fine Art and Archives unit which oversaw the widespread retrieval of objects taken by the Nazi government during the war. This included at one point directly interviewing the parents of Eva Braun (1912-1945). Afterwards, he became the first director Institute of the Contemporary Arts, London (ICA), from which he resigned in 1953 to focus on art dealing.

Citations:
[a] Algernon Graves, The British Institution, 1806-1867: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and their Work from the Foundation of the Institution (George Bell and Sons and Algernon Graves, 1908), 203. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.l0062392592.
[b] John Knowles, The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli, Esq. M. A. R. A. (London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831), 289. https://archive.org/lifewritingsofhe01fuse.
[c] George Nicholson, Nicholson's Cambrian Traveller's Guide in Every Direction; Containing Remarks Made During Many Excursions, in the Principality of Wales, Augmented by Extracts from the Best Writers (London: George Nicholson, 1813), 272. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/dul1.ark:/13960/t3035cz8h.
[d] David H. Weinglass, ed., The Collected English Letters of Henry Fuseli (Kraus International Publications, 1982), 129–130. https://archive.org/collectedenglish0000fuse.
[e] British Institution, Catalogue of Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French, and Deceased English, Masters (London: William Nicol, 1844), 14. https://archive.org/britishinstituti1840brit.
[f] "The Haford Estate in Cardiganshire," Morning Post, March 20, 1833. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/R3209934195/GDCS?u=29002&sid=bookmark-GDCS&pg=3&xid=06a64c56.
[g] Leslie Stephen, ed., "Forrest–Garner," in Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 20 (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1889), 338. https://archive.org/dictionaryofnati20stepuoft.
[h] Gert Schiff, Johann Heinrich Füssli, 1741–1825 (Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, 1973), 633, no. 1759.
[i] William Gaunt, "Aspects of English Painting," Times, March 6, 1968.
[j] Malcolm Cormack, A Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 1985), 96. https://archive.org/concisecatalogue0000yale.