Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School including a Collection of Watercolour Drawings, Studies, and Sketches from Nature

The Royal Academy of Arts had held an annual loan exhibition of Old Masters at Burlington House each winter since 1870, providing London audiences access to works from private collections alongside the Academy’s established Summer Exhibition of contemporary art. The 1892 edition followed that format, assembling paintings, watercolours, and drawings by Old Masters and recently deceased British artists.

The Guitar Player appeared in the catalogue as no. 46 under the title “The Lute Player,” a misidentification of the instrument common in nineteenth-century British exhibition records. It was lent by Edward Cecil Guinness, later the 1st Earl of Iveagh, who had acquired the picture from the London dealers Thomas Agnew and Sons in 1889, the year after the death of the previous owner, William Francis Cowper-Temple, 1st Baron Mount Temple. Guinness retained the painting until his death, when it passed to Kenwood House as part of the Iveagh Bequest of 1927.