19th-century French Follower of Sir Peter Paul Rubens

This small-scale painting is an adaptation of Peter Paul Rubens’s monumental composition Ixion, King of the Lapiths, Deceived by Juno, now housed in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The present version was likely executed by a nineteenth-century French artist who would have encountered the original during its time in the collection of the Dukes of Westminster.

The scene illustrates the myth of Ixion, who, having attempted to seduce Juno, is tricked by Jupiter into embracing a cloud in her likeness—an act that leads to his eternal punishment. Rendered with sensitivity to Rubens’s dynamic forms and rich palette, the work reflects the enduring influence of the Flemish master on later generations of academic painters and copyists.