Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Please note this painting is displayed in a loan frame from Arnold Wiggins and Sons. Should you wish to purchase it please contact a member of the Old Master Paintings department. Please note this lot will be taken to our Greenford Park Warehouse after the sale and not as stated in the printed catalogue.

Possibly Ambrogio Spinola, 1st Marquis of Los Balbases (1569–1630), Genoa;

His son Filippo Spinola Basadonne di Ambrogio, 2nd Marquis of Los Balbases (1594–1659), Genoa, in his will of 7 June 1655;

Thence by direct family descent to Carlo Filippo Antonio Spinola Colonna, 4th Marquis of Los Balbases and Viceroy of Sicily (1665–1721), in whose palazzo on piazza del Serriglio, Genoa, it is recorded in 1722 (as ‘N^o: 2: Atro quadro con cornice simile originale di Pietro Paolo/ Rubens di misura consimile a quel di sopra [alto palmi cinque e largo palmi quattro circa], che rappresenta/ S. Sebastiano con due Angioli, che le cavano le saette/ estimato in Doppie Ottanta/ D: 80’);

By inheritance to his daughter Anna Spinola, Duchess of Arcos, in whose ownership recorded in August 1731 and most likely with her in Madrid by 1733;

By repute and according to the Ivey-Selkirk sale catalogue, Bonapartes, mid-19th century;

Sa'Lees Seddon (1915–1984), St Louis, Missouri;

From whom acquired in 1963 by Ken O'Connor, St Louis, Missouri;

By whom sold, St Louis, Ivey-Selkirk, 29–30 March 2008, lot 448 (as attributed to Laurent de la Hire [sic]);

Where acquired by the present owner.

Recorded in the will dated 7 June 1655 of Filippo Spinola Basadonne di Ambrogio, 2nd Marquis of Los Balbases (1594–1659), Archivio di Stato di Alessandria (ASA), Notai di Tortona, Francesco Ricci, 2158 (also in the Spanish copy of the will AGS, Contaduría de Mercedes, 1007, ‘Testamento de Felipe Spinola, II marqués de Los Balbases’; M. Herrero Sánchez, ‘La red genovesa Spinola y el entramado’, in Las redes del Imperio. Élites sociales en la articulación de la Monarquía Hispánica, 1492–1714, Y. Casalilla (ed.), Madrid 2009, pp. 130–31);

Recorded in the inventory dated 25 February 1722 of property belonging to Carlo Filippo Antonio Spinola Colonna, 4th Marquis of Los Balbases (1665–1721), Palazzo Spinola, piazza del Serriglio, Genoa (as ‘originale di Pietro Paolo/ Rubens di misura consimile a quel di sopra [alto palmi cinque e largo palmi quattro circa], che rappresenta/ S. Sebastiano con due Angioli, che le cavano
le saette’ and valued at 80 ducats);

Recorded in a list of property divided to Anna Spinola, Duchess of Arcos, August 1731: ‘una pittura di S. Sebastiano con due Angeli, che li levano/ le freccie con cornice dorata di cinque palmi di longhezza, e/ quattro di larghezza poco più o poco meno originale di/ Pietro Paolo Rubens valutato in ottanta doppie moneta/ di Genova, che sono millecinquecento venti lire Genovesi/ quali a raguaglio
di tre reali di villion per ciascheduna/ fanno quattro mila cinquecento sessanta reali di V.m 4560’;

Almost certainly part of the cargo transported from Genoa to Alicante, on 15 April and 22 August 1733 in 29 crates, the cost of which is recorded in the ‘Conto di spese fatte da me Don Gaetano Corradi per ordine dell’Eccellentissimo Signor Agostino Salvago intorno alli generi di seta lana pitture et altre consegnatili come procuratore dell’Eccellentissima Signora Duchessa d’Arcos mia Signora di Madrid stateli assegnati dall’Eccellentissimo Signor Marchese de los Balbases mio Signore’; 

P. Boccardo and A. Orlando, ‘Dipinti di Rubens a Genova e per Genova’, in L’Età di Rubens. Dimore, committenti e collezionisti genovesi, P. Boccardo (ed.), exh. cat., Palazzo Ducale et al., Genoa, Milan 2004, p. 43, no. III.11 (as whereabouts unknown);

B. Ducos (ed.), L'Europe de Rubens, exh. cat., Lens 2013, p. 66, no. 29, reproduced fig. 18 (as P.P. Rubens (?) after 1604);

B. Van Beneden, The Rubenshuis, Kontich 2014, pp. 27–29;

C. Paolini in Rubens e la nascita del Barocco, A. Lo Bianco (ed.), exh. cat., Venice 2016, p. 152, no. 25;

N. Büttner and S.-K. Diefenthaler, ‘Becoming Famous. Peter Paul Rubens wird berühmt’, in Becoming Famous. Peter Paul Rubens, N. Büttner and S.-K. Diefenthaler (eds), exh. cat., Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart 2021, pp. 32–37, no. 45, reproduced in colour on p. 35 (with incorrect dimensions; as Peter Paul Rubens (?), around 1608/9);

N. Büttner in Becoming Famous. Peter Paul Rubens, N. Büttner and S.-K. Diefenthaler (eds), exh. cat., Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, 2021, p. 321, no. 45 (with incorrect dimensions; as Peter Paul Rubens (?), around 1608/9);

A. Orlando in Rubens a Genova, N. Büttner and A. Orlando (eds), exh. cat., Genoa 2022, pp. 210–13 (as Rubens circa 1615, but in her text she suggests it was painted in the first decade of the 17th century);

A. Orlando, ‘Dipinti sacri di Rubens per i genovesi. Novità e aggiornamenti’, in Itinerari rubensiani: la centralità dell’immagine del sacro, atti del convegno, Università di Genova, 19–20 January 2023, forthcoming (as Rubens).

 

Antwerp, Rubenshuis, on loan, 2010–2023 (the loans to the Stuttgart and Genoa exhibitions being from the Rubenshuis on behalf of the owner);

Lens, Musée du Louvre, L'Europe de Rubens, 22 May – 23 September 2013, no. 29 (as P.P. Rubens (?) after 1604); 

Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie, Becoming Famous. Peter Paul Rubens, 22 October 2021 – 20 February 2022, no. 45;

Genoa, Palazzo Ducale, Rubens a Genova, 6 October 2022 – 22 January 2023, pp. 210–13 (as Peter Paul Rubens, circa 1615).