Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Count Charles de Proli;
His sale, Antwerp, Grange, 23(?)ff. July 1785, lot 6, sold (together with an oil sketch for Saturn devouring his children) for 61 florins to De Loose, Brussels, according to Rooses (see Literature, below);
Offered, François Pauwels (deceased) sale, Brussels, De Marneffe, 22 August 1803, lot 67 (together with the oil sketch for Saturn devouring his children) ;
Richard Cosway, R.A. (1742-1821), Schomberg House, London;
His sale, London, Stanley's, 17 May 1821, lot 65;
Private collection, Lugano.

Tokyo, Gallery Takashimaya, Yamaguchi, Prefectoral Museum; Tsu, Prefectoral Museum; and Kyoto, Gallery Takashimaya, Pierre-Paul Rubens, 8 August 1985 - 20 January 1986, no. 59, illustrated in colour p. 144;
Edinburgh, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, London, National Portrait Gallery, Richard and Maria Cosway, Regency artists of taste and fashion, 1996, no. 190.

M. Rooses, Rubens, vol. III, 1890, pp. 19, 32-33;
S. Alpers, The Decoration of the Torre de la Parada, in Corpus Rubenianum, Ludwig Burchard, vol. IX, 1971, pp. 211-12, cat. no. 24a;
M. Jaffé, "The Oil Sketches of Rubens", in Apollo, vol. CXV, no. 239, January 1982, pp. 61-65, reproduced fig. 1 and in colour plate VIII;
Pierre-Paul Rubens, exhibition catalogue, Tokyo, Gallery Takashimaya, Yamaguchi, Prefectoral Museum; Tsu, Prefectoral Museum; and Kyoto, Gallery Takashimaya, 8 August 1985 - 20 January 1986, cat. no. 59, reproduced in colour on p. 144;
M. Jaffé, Rubens, Milan 1990, p. 357, cat. no. 1271, reproduced;
S. Lloyd, Richard and Maria Cosway, Regency artists of taste and fashion, exhibition catalogue, Edinburgh, Scottish National Portrait Gallery; and London, National Portrait Gallery, 1995-96, p. 130, cat. no. 190, reproduced plate 79.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a fine oak panel made up of a central section with a horizontal grain and two side pieces about two inches wide with a vertical grain. It has been cradled perhaps early in the last century. There is no sign of flaking at all, but one narrow horizontal crack across the central panel at the level of the knees, with a fine line of fairly old retouching. The only other retouchings are two minute surface touches on the chest. The two joints show simply as narrow lines without retouching crossed by original brushwork, and the artist clearly put the panel together as he worked, a constant habit, with early pentimenti crossing from one part to another for instance changes to the wing of the Eagle at upper right or clouds under the right knee. The individual pieces could initially have come from other work with differing preparations and snatches of other strokes at the edges. The outer lower sections have brief impasted strokes on either side perhaps tying them into the sketch as it is. The remarkably fresh intact unworn condition of the sketch reinforces the sense of its directness and intimacy as with personal studio effects. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This interesting preliminary sketch relates to Rubens' Rape of Ganymede in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, which originally formed part of the decoration of the 'Torre de la Parada', the recently built hunting lodge of Philip IV of Spain located outside of Madrid for which Rubens was paid 10,000 livres. The subject matter for the last great decorative cycle of Rubens' career was taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses, in this case, relating to the homoerotic myth of the rape of the young Trojan prince Ganymede by Jupiter in the guise of an eagle.¹  The first official mention of the commission was a letter dated 20 November 1636 from the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand informing Philip IV that Rubens has received the commission and has already started some of the works,² a dating for this sketch which was supported by Michael Jaffé.³  The Prado picture belongs to a limited number of paintings executed for the Torre which appear to have been executed entirely by Rubens himself.  Rather unusually 'the brilliant Torre sketches were apparently created without preparatory drawings and with no grisaille sketches',⁴ and are preserved in over fifty cases, lending an invaluable insight into the production of the Rubens workshop, and clearly illustrate in this case Rubens' modification in design from the initial conception to the larger finished canvas in the Prado.

At the time of the De Prodi and Pauwels sales in 1785 and 1803, the present sketch was paired with a companion depicting Saturn devouring his Children.⁵  The two panels appear to have been separated after the latter sale. The Saturn is last recorded by Held as with Galerie Sanct Lucas, Vienna, between 1933 and 1938. The present panel, the Saturn and also the Fortuna in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin, all appear to have been extended by the addition of two lateral strips on either side.

The present sketch was not known to Held at the time of the publication of The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens, but in a letter dated 21 June 1980, a copy of which accompanies this lot, he fully endorses Rubens' authorship of this sketch, including the lateral strips added to the panel. Held further suggests that the numeric inscription near the edge of the panel may have been a reference to the intended width of the larger canvas in the Prado.

Richard Cosway was a leading luminary of the late 18th-century English art world and a fashionable painter and socialite. Like his contemporary Sir Thomas Lawrence and his friend Sir Joshua Reynolds, he was an avid collector of both Old Master paintings and drawings, possessing over five hundred paintings. His collection though was defined by an obsession with works by Rubens and his pupils, with nearly a quarter of the paintings he owned consisting of sketches by Rubens and his pupils, particularly Van Dyck and Jordaens.⁶

1.  Ovid, Metamorhoses, 10:152-161.
2.  See Alpers, under Literature, p. 29.
3.  See Jaffé, under Literature, p. 357, cat. no. 1272.
4.  Alpers, op. cit., p. 30.
5.  See J. Held, The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens, Princeton 1980, vol. I, p. 296, cat. no. 215, reproduced plate 224.
6.  Richard Cosway, Collector, Connoisseur and Virtuoso, p. 76.