Exhibition of Old Masters for the Benefit of The Artists' Funds and Artists' Aid Societies

From January 11 to 27, 1912, M. Knoedler & Co. hosted a loan exhibition of Old Masters at its Fifth Avenue galleries, with proceeds directed to the Artists’ Fund and Artists’ Aid Societies, two organisations that provided relief to needy artists and their families in New York. The privately printed catalog ran to 250 copies, and the assembled loans drew from distinguished private collections in Europe and America.

Vermeer’s Officer and Laughing Girl appeared as catalog number 50, illustrated, and was lent by Samuel S. Joseph of London. Joseph and his widow had owned the painting since the 1890s, and Knoedler had recently handled its sale to Henry Clay Frick. The work entered the Frick Collection in 1911, and its appearance in this benefit show reflects the close relationship between the gallery and its most prominent clients during that period.