DUTCH SCHOOL, 17TH CENTURY | A COMIC ACTOR, PLAYING THE ROLE OF A SLAVE, AFTER AN ANTIQUE MARBLE IN THE VATICAN, WITH FURTHER ISOLATED STUDIES OF THE HEAD AND HAND

Formerly in a portfolio inscribed 'S.2' with the bookplate of Edward, Earl of Powis (Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis of the third creation (1754-1839),

thence by inheritance to his second son, Robert Henry Clive (1789-1854), of Oakly Park, Shropshire, M.P. for South Shropshire,

thence by descent to Robert Windsor-Clive (1824-1859) and his son Robert George, Baron Windsor (1859-1923), for whom the earldom of Plymouth was revived in 1905,

thence by descent,

sale, London, Christie's, Important Old Master Drawings including Property of The Earl of Plymouth, 1 July 1986, lot 143 (as Sir Peter Paul Rubens) 

M. Jaffé, Rubens and Italy, Oxford 1977, p. 82, fig. 298 (as Rubens)

This grand black chalk study, previously attributed to Rubens, is a confident and bold drawing that certainly reveals a talented artistic hand. The handling seems, however, more Dutch than Flemish in character. The marble sculpture of the slave, from the Mattei Collection, is now housed in the Vatican Museum.¹

1. G. Lippold, Die Skulpturen des Vatikanischen Museum, 1956, III, nos. 60 and 71, pl. 148