Private German collector, possibly B.A. König;{1} sale, (Sotheby's, London) in 1981;{2} purchased by the Indianapolis Museum of Art in 1981.

{1}The name "B.A. Konig" is written on the verso of the frame in white chalk. Correspondence with Sotheby's London in September 2009 could neither confirm or deny this, due to client confidentiality policies, though Sotheby's noted that the consignor was "a private client in Germany."
{2} The painting was included in Sotheby's, London, "Nineteenth-century European Paintings," 6 May 1981, as lot no. 118 (ill.). According to the correspondence with Sotheby's London cited above, the painting did not sell, but was sold privately to the IMA shortly after the sale.
As regards the early history of this painting, it is possible that it was included in the 1870 Paris Salon as no. 439: Pierre Cabanel, Daphnis et Chloé. The painting was also reproduced, without a credit line, in Julian Hawthorne, ed., The Masterpieces and the History of Literature: Analysis, Criticism, Character and Incident, Chicago, New York, vol. 7, 1903, after p. 73 as Pierre Cabanel, Daphnis and Chloe.