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Created by Henry Fuseli (1741-1825), the artist; purchased at auction by Peter Norton (1782–1868), London, England, at Christie’s, in London, England, May 28, 1827 (lot 5, ‘The Witch and the Mandrake, from Ben Jonson’), "The Whole of the Remaining Finished and Unfinished Works, of that Distinguished Artist, Henry Fuseli, Esq. M.A." [1][a][b]; acquired by Samuel Rogers (1763–1855), London, England [2][c]; purchased at auction by Matthew Hutchinson (1805-1874), Blackheath, London, England at Christie, Manson & Woods, in London, England, April 28–May 10, 1856 (lot 637, ‘A witch, seated, gathering mandrakes’)[3], in "The Very Celebrated Collection of Works of Art, the Property of Samuel Rogers, Esq., Deceased" [d]; sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, England, February 22, 1861 (lot 163, ‘A witch gathering mandrakes’), in "The Valuable and Interesting Collection of Pictures, Drawings, Engravings, and Models, Formed with refined Taste, during a long Series of Years, by Mr. Matthew Hutchinson" [e]; ...; purchased at auction by Sabin Galleries, Ltd., London, England at Sotheby & Co., in London, England, November 23, 1966 (lot 63, ‘A Witch Casting a Spell Over a Child, unframed’), in "Fine Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings" [4][f]; purchased by Paul Mellon (1907–1999), 1967 [g]; by whom given to the Yale Center for British Art, 1981.

Notes:
[1] The annotated versions of the 1827 sale catalogue list the buyer as ‘Norton,’ which likely refers to the London-based picture collector, restorer, and dealer Peter Norton. His only child, Adelaide (1814–1898), went on to marry William Manson (1800–1850), a partner in the Christie & Manson auction house. Norton purchased two more Fuseli paintings at the exhibition and sale of Stowe House’s contents in 1848.

[2] Samuel Rogers was an English poet. He also attended the 1827 Fuseli auction and purchased one drawing. Rogers may have purchased the painting directly from Norton after the auction.

[3] Matthew Hutchinson was a merchant who was a long-term resident of Blackheath, London, England where he also made contributions to the Greenwich Natural History Club. The painting was listed as being removed from Hutchinson’s home at 4 Paragon, Blackheath for the 1861 sale. The Paragon Crescent is the best-known work by commercial architect Michael Searle and is now a Grade I listed building.

[4] This lot was listed under various properties.

Citations:
[a] James Christie, A Catalogue of the Whole of the Remaining Finished and Unfinished Works, of that Distinguished Artist, Henry Fuseli, Esq. M.A., Deceased (London: Mr. Christie, 1827), 1.
[b] Henry Rumsey Forster, The Stowe Catalogue Priced and Annotated (London: David Bogue, 1848), 159. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Stowe_Catalogue_Priced_and_Annotated/6CMP7qDUhvgC?hl=en&gbpv=0&bsq=.
[c] Gert Schiff, Johann Heinrich Füssli, 1741–1825 (Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, 1973), 632, no. 1752.
[d] Messrs. Christie & Manson, Catalogue of the Very Celebrated Collection of Works of Art, the Property of Samuel Rogers, Esq., Deceased (London: Christie & Manson, 1856), 61. https://archive.org/catalogueofveryc1856chri.
[e] Messrs. Christie, Manson & Woods, Catalogue of the Valuable and Interesting Collection of Pictures, Drawings, Engravings, and Models, Formed with refined Taste, during a long Series of Years, by Mr. Matthew Hutchinson (London: Christie, Manson & Woods, 1861), 9.
[f] Messrs. Sotheby & Co., Fine Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings (Sotheby & Co., 1966), 19.
[g] Malcolm Cormack, A Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 1985), 94. https://archive.org/concisecatalogue0000yale.