LOT DETAILS

Materials:

oil on canvas

Measurements:

74.80 in. (190.00 cm.) (height) by 88.58 in. (225.00 cm.) (width)

Description:

SIGN UP or LOG IN

Literature:

British Library, Add MS 61473: 1740-1741, ‘Inventory of Blenheim & Marlborough House, signed by S. Duchess – 1740’, as located in the Great Room at Marlborough House. The New Oxford Guide, 4th ed., Oxford, 1765, p. 94. T. Martyn, The English Connoisseur, I, London, 1766, p. 24, as located in the Library at Blenheim, over the bookcases. A New Pocket Companion for Oxford, Oxford, 1783, pp. 101-102, as located in the Dining Room at Blenheim. W.F. Mavor, New Description of Blenheim, Oxford, 1787, p. 39. J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters, London, 1830, II, p. 247, no. 839; p. 299, no. 1079. J.D. Passavant, Kunstreise durch England und Belgien, Frankfurt am Main, 1833, p. 176, no. 12: English edition, Tour of a German Artist in England, London, 1836, II, p. 8, no. 12. G.F. Waagen, Art and Artists in England, London, 1838, II, p. 236: ‘…excites an admiration of the skill, the energy of the artist, but is at the same time repulsive, on account of the vulgarity of the forms and characters. The charm of truth is also wanting in the blue half tints, the red reflections, and the bright light in the flesh’, located in the Dining Room at Blenheim. G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London, 1854, III, p. 130, no. 16. G. Scharf, Catalogue Raisonné; or, A List of the Pictures in Blenheim Palace, London, 1861, p. 22. M. Rooses, L'Oeuvre de P.P. Rubens. Histoire et description de ses tableaux et dessins, I, pp. 123-124, no. 103; V, 1892, p. 311, no. 103, as ‘première époque de Rubens, fait par un élève, retouché par le Maître’ C. Sedelmeyer, Illustrated Catalogue of 300 Paintings by Old Masters of the Dutch, Flemish, Italian, French, and English Schools, being some of the Principal Pictures which have at Various Times Formed Part of the Sedelmeyer Gallery, Paris 1898, no. 158, illustrated. A. Rosenberg (ed.), P.P. Rubens. Des Meisters Gemälde, (Klassiker der Kunst V), Stuttgart-Leipzig, 1906, pp. 54, 466; R. Oldenbourg (ed.), 4th ed., Stuttgart-Berlin, 1921, pp. 40, 456. E. Dillon, Rubens, London, 1909, pl. XLI. E. Buchner, Katalog der Älteren Pinakothek, Munich, 1936, p. XIV. G. Fubini, J.S. Held, ‘Padre Resta's Rubens Drawings after Ancient Sculpture’, Master Drawings, II, 1964, p. 137. J. Muller Hofstede, 'Aspekte der Entwurfszeichnung bei Rubens', Akten Kongress Bonn 1964, Berlin, 1967, III, pp. 117-118, pl. 183. A.F. de Mirimonde, '"Loth et ses filles" de Verhaghen. Evolution d'un thème', Revue du Louvre, XXII, 1972, p. 376, fig. 8. R.A. D'Hulst, M. Vandenven, P.S. Falla, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, III, London, 1989, p. 50-51, no. 8, pl. 19, (incorrectly located as in Biarritz, Private Collection). M. Jaffé, Rubens: Catalogo Completo, Milan, 1989, p. 181. T. Murdoch (ed.), Noble Households: Eighteenth-Century Inventories of Great English Houses. A Tribute to John Cornforth, Cambridge, 2006, p. 284

Provenance:

Balthazar Courtois (d. 1668), Antwerp, and by descent to his son, Jan Baptist Courtois. Ghisbert van Ceulen (or Colen), Antwerp; purchased from him, 17 September 1698, by Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria (1662-1726), Munich, from where appropriated in 1704 for the following Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (1678-1711), by whom presented to the following John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), in the Great Room at Marlborough house by 1740, moved to the Library at Blenheim Palace by 1766, and by 1810 in the Dining Room, thence by descent at Blenheim to George Charles, 8th Duke of Marlborough (1844-1992); purchased before the Blenheim sale (London, Christie's, 24 July 1886 et seq.) by Sedelmeyer, Paris, for Baron Maurice de Hirsch de Gereuth (1831-1896), and by descent. Madame la Baronne de Hirsch de Gereuth; Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 17 June 1904, lot 38 (unsold or bought back). with Jules Féral, Paris by 1905 (unsold and returned to the family above) and by descent