Attributed to Sir Peter Paul Rubens and Workshop

Probably listed as no. 114 in Rubens' own Estate in 1640: 'Een portret Der Keyzerin', by Rubens;
Probably the painting of this subject listed in the inventory of the collection of Diego Duarte, Antwerp, 1682, and seen in the Duarte collection by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger in the Summer of 1687;
Major McCalmont, Villa Medici, Fiesole, by circa 1925;
A.L. Nicholson, London, by 1926;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 28 November 1947, lot 105;
Julius Singer, London;
Purchased from the above by Trainé, Zurich in 1952;
Paul Vögel, Luzern, 1952, from whom acquired the same year by
Swiss private collector;
Thence by descent.

 

New York, J. Jackson Higgs Gallery, Exhibition commemorating the 350^th Anniversary of Rubens, 1927, no. 6;
London, Wildenstein, A Loan Exhibition of Work by Peter Paul Rubens, 1950, no. 34.

Probably Spécification des Peintres trouvées à la maison mortuaire du feu Messire Pierre Paul Rubens, chevalier, & c., MS., Antwerp 1640, no. 114;
Probably Register of Paintings in the House of Diego Duarte, Antwerp, July 12 1682, MS., Antwerp 1682, no. 63;
M. Rooses, L'Oeuvre de P.P Rubens, histoire et description de ses tableaux et dessins, Antwerp 1886-92, vol. IV, pp. 210-11, no. 988;
Possibly Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Heidelberger Schlosses, vol. III, Heidelberg 1896, p. 219;
Probably O. Siren, Nicodemus Tessin d.Y's studieresor, Stockholm 1914, p. 80;
Der Cicerone, vol. XIX, 1927, p. 410;
L. Burchard, A Catalogue of a Loan exhibition of Works by Rubens, London 1950, no. 34, pp. 42-44;
E. Harris and J. Elliot, 'Velazquez and the Queen of Hungary', The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXVIII, 1976, p. 26, reproduced fig. 31;
F. Huemer, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, part XIX, Portraits, vol. I, London 1977, pp. 144-46, no. 24, reproduced, fig. 79;
J.M. Muller, Rubens:  the Artist as Collector, Princeton 1989, pp. 116-17, reproduced, pl. 55;
M. Jaffé, Rubens: Catalogo Completo, Milan 1990, p. 304, no. 907.

The catalogue entry correctly suggests that the painting was painted with great speed, if not haste. This however does not mean that it was completed in one session. The blue background for instance was painted after the dress was completed and dry. The artist used the blue background also to improve a contour (her left shoulder) and while doing this, the paint did not run through. The question is whether the clothing, hands and face were also done in one session. A first inspection suggests that the flesh tones have been (partly) under painted which rules out a creation in one session. It also seems that there are hardly any light reflections between the collar and the face. The clothing certainly seems to consist of one layer, but since the highlights have not run through, it seems that here as well, the painting has been worked on more than once. The painting did not undergo scientific research, therefore I would like to stress that this is a first impression after a single inspection. However, it can be said with certainty that large parts of the painting consist of one paint layer and has been painted fluently. This means, almost per definition, that the paint layer is very thin and therefore will suffer more easily from cleaning, as is the case here. In many places the structure of the canvas has become visible through the paint layer. Considering the fact that a 17th Century painting is on average cleaned about eight times, this painting exceeds expectations, as there is very little wear, except in the darker background. There are a few minor damages in the forehead, but this can be easily restored. This condition report was made by Martin Bijl, paintings restorer.
"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."

The sitter, the Infanta Maria, sister of Philip IV of Spain, was born on 18^th August 1606.  She was wooed unsuccessfully by Charles Prince of Wales when he visited the Spanish Court incognito in 1623 with the Duke of Buckingham.  Rubens would have met her during his short visit to Spain in 1628-9, and we assume that she sat for him then; indeed in the present portrait she is depicted as a young woman in her early 20s.  During this period she was betrothed to Ferdinand, King of Hungary and Bohemia (and later Emperor Ferdinand III), and married him by proxy in the Madrid Palace on April 5^th 1629.  She left Madrid on 20^th February 1630 to travel to Vienna, where her marriage was celebrated on 20^th February 1631.  During her trip she sat for Velázquez in Naples (see fig. 1).¹

Francisco Pacheco (Velázquez' father-in-law) records in 1649 that during his second stay at the Spanish Court from September 1628 to late April 1629, Rubens painted portraits of the King, Queen, and their family, done in half length, `the portraits to be taken to Flanders'.<sup>2</sup> According to Rubens himself, writing on 2<sup>nd</sup> December 1628, these were done from life, and intended for the Infanta Clara Eugenia, in Brussels: `I have moreover done the heads of all the royal family with the greatest care and convenience in their presence, in the service of the most serene Infanta my patroness'.³  It is interesting to note that, two sentences later in the same letter, Rubens mentions the planned embarkation of the present sitter, the Queen of Hungary, on her voyage to Italy, noting that he hoped to take advantage of her voyage to make a tour of Italy, for which he had successfully sought permission.  The implication is that he intended to travel on the same vessel - a privilege which his elevated diplomatic status would have permitted.

A portrait of the Infanta Maria is recorded in the inventory of Rubens' possessions drawn up at his death as `No. 114.  Un portrait de l'Imperatrice'.<sup>4</sup>    It was recorded again in the inventory of Diego Duarte taken on 12<sup>th</sup> July 1682 as no. 63: `Van Peeter Paulo Rubbens.  Een Conterfeyt van Infanta van Spanien, de moeder van den tegenwoordigen Keyser, near haer in Spanien geschildert'.⁵  Duarte's inventory thus specifies that the portrait depicts the mother of the then reigning Emperor, and was painted by Rubens from life in Spain.  Duarte had a most distinguished collection of pictures acquired from the collections of Buckingham, Arundel, Rudolf II and including several from Rubens himself.  The portrait of the Infanta was still in the Duarte collection in the summer of 1687 as noted by the Swede Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, who described it as very beautiful: `Sonsten wahr dar auch vom selben ein sehr schön Contrefait von des itzigen Keyssers Mutter'.⁶  With the sole exception of a reference to one of a number of Imperial portraits listed in the Heidelberg Schloss in 1685, following the death of the Elector Palatine Charles II in 1685, no other portrait of the Infanta is known with an ascription to Rubens.⁷  Given the more precise description in Rubens' inventory, and in the inventory of the most outstanding collection of Duarte, it is highly probable that the present picture is the one there described.  Further evidence for it having remained in Antwerp collections following Rubens' death is provided by its inclusion along with other Rubens portraits in the far distance of an imaginary palatial picture gallery painted by Gaspard Jacob van Opstal the Younger and other Antwerp painters over a period of over twenty years between circa 1676 and 1698 (see fig. 2).⁸

The present portrait was rediscovered by Ludwig Burchard in 1926, who considered it then and in subsequent publications to be an autograph work by Rubens.⁹  Burchard was until recently the only scholar to have inspected it in the original, and all subsequent published discussion of it has been on the basis of photographs.  Burchard considered it to have been unfinished, a view endorsed by Huemer, who conjectured that the head and neckpiece may have been started by Rubens, and the portrait finished by an assistant or follower.  Jaffe also repeated these reservations, and both scholars published it with the caveat that their assessment was based on old photographs only.  There is no doubt that this portrait is very rapidly painted, and peremptorily finished, with the handle of the brush used to sketch details of the costume into the wet paint, which amply demonstrates how swiftly the artist worked.  The very limited time available to Rubens during his short stay in Spain has been used to explain why he may not have finished this picture himself, but equally it might also explain why it appears to be painted so rapidly.

One of the problems in assessing works that stem, as this one certainly does, from Rubens' short Madrid sojourn, is that we do not have a consistent picture of his activities there.  He is known to have painted four known portraits of Philip IV, of which only two survive.  His famous vast equestrian portrait commissioned in June 1628 is in the Prado.  Another huge equestrian portrait was probably destroyed in the fire in the Alcazar in 1734, but is known from a full-size copy.  A portrait of the King standing full length is in Genoa, and a half-length, also lost, is recorded in a copy.  Several of his portraits of other members of the family are lost, but his portrait of the Infante Don Ferdinando, Philip's younger brother, dressed as a cardinal, is in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.  Ana Dorotea, natural daughter of the Emperor Rudolf II and a nun in the convent of the Descalzas Reales sat to Rubens in a portrait now in the Wellington Museum, Apsley House.  Two portraits dating from this time of Isabella Bourbon, Queen of Spain are known: a small sketch in Vienna and an almost equally sketchy portrait sold London, Sotheby's, 3 December 1997, lot 82.  Tellingly it has been suggested that the latter portrait too started as a head study by Rubens, with ruff and costume added back in Antwerp by assistants.

That Rubens seems to have painted very little else during his stay in Madrid is hardly surprising given his many other duties in the service of diplomacy.  He managed - inevitably - to paint at least two copies of Titians he did not previously know in the Royal collection, and he reworked parts of his own Adoration done in 1609.¹⁰  Finally, there is a large and rapidly worked Immaculate Conception painted for the Marques de Leganes, and now in the Prado.

We are grateful to Prof. Dr. H. Vlieghe to confirm his view that the painting could have been painted by Sir Peter Paul Rubens and his studio, after inspection of the original.

1.   For a readable account of the events surrounding the Infanta's pursuit by Buckingham, her marriage to Ferdinand and her sitting to Velazquez, see E. Harris & J. Elliott under Literature, pp. 24-7. 
2.   F. Pacheco, Arte de la Pintura, ed. by J. Sanchez Cantón, vol. I, Madrid 1956, p. 153.
3.   In a letter to Nicholas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc; see M. Rooses under Literature, vol. V, p. 10.
4.   See Provenance and Literature (1640).  There is an English manuscript version of Rubens' inventory in which she is more specifically identified as `The picture of the nowe Empresse'.
5.   See under Provenance and Literature (1682)
6.   See under Provenance, and Siren, 1914 under Literature.
7.   See under Literature, Mitteilungen..., 1896.
8.   Sold from the Estate of Ray Livingston Murphy, New York, Christie's, 15 January 1986, lot 111, and first recorded in the catalogue of the cancelled sale of William Beckford's collection, Fonthill, Abbey, 1823.  Van Opstal signed and dated the work, probably at its completion, in 1698, and other artists such as Hendrik van Minderhout, Theodoor Boeyermans and Pieter van Bloemen also signed parts of it.
9.   Earlier references in the Literature are to archival records of the work.
10.  One of Rubens' Titian copies done in Madrid in 1628, the Rape of Europa, is also to be found in Van Opstal's palatial gallery interior (q,v).