Possibly Pieter Claesz van Ruijven [1624 1674], Delft; possibly by inheritance to his wife, Maria de Knuijt [d. 1681], Delft; possibly by inheritance to her daughter, Magdalena van Ruijven [1655 1682], Delft; possibly by inheritance to her husband, Jacobus Abrahamsz. Dissius [1653 1695], Delft;[1] (sale, Amsterdam, 16 May 1696, no. 1);[2] Isaac Rooleeuw, Amsterdam; (sale, Amsterdam, 20 April 1701, no. 6); Paolo van Uchelen [d. 1703], Amsterdam. (sale, B. Tideman, Amsterdam, 18 March 1767, no. 6); Kok. Nicolaas Nieuhoff, Amsterdam; (sale, Ph. van der Schley, Amsterdam, 14 April 1777, no. 116); Van den Bogaard.[3] (sale, Maximilian I Joseph (1756 1825), Munich, 5 December 1826, no. 101, as by Gabriel Metsu). Louis Charles Victor de Riquet de Caraman [1762 1839], Paris; (sale, Lacoste, Paris, 10 May 1830, no. 68). Casimir Péreir; (sale, Christie & Manson, London, 5 May 1848, no. 7); Péreir's son; by inheritance to

Comtesse de Ségur Péreir; (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, and M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[4] sold 11 January 1911 to Peter A. B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] The 1683 inventory of goods accruing to Jacob Dissius after the death of his wife, Magdalena van Ruyven, lists twenty paintings by Vermeer. For the complete transactions between her husband, Jacob Dissius, and his father, Abraham Dissius, following her death, see John Michael Montias, Vermeer and His Milieu: A Web of Social History, Princeton, 1989, 246 257, 359 361, docs. 417, 420.

[2] For this sale see Montias 1989, 363 364, doc. 439.

[3] The systematic catalogue for the NGA Dutch paintings published the following information at this point in the provenance: "PP. [initials of consignor]; (sale, Ph. van der Schley, Amsterdam, 11 May 1801, no. 48); bought for Ph. van der Schley by M[errem]." This had been provided by The Getty Provenance Index, but was in error. The painting in the 1801 sale was one of the same subject by Pieter de Hooch, now in Berlin, per 27 October 1997 letter from Burton Frederickson, Director of the Provenance Index, in NGA curatorial files.

• Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting. Inspiration and Rivalry., מוזיאון הלובר (‏20 בפברואר 2017‏ - ) 
• Vermeer, רייקסמוזיאום, ‏10 בפברואר 2023‏ - ‏4 ביוני 2023‏ 

• Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting, 53 
• Johannes Vermeer catalog raisonné, 1908, 10
• Pictures in the collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. Early German, Dutch & Flemish schools, 47
• https://www.wga.hu/html/v/vermeer/03b/20balan.html 
• National Gallery of Art artwork ID: 1236 
• מזהה RKDimages: 219094 
• Google Arts & Culture asset ID: -wHFDKu7-mhjtQ 
• 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die, p. 271