Lot 438
Property from a Private Collection
Workshop of Sir Peter Paul Rubens
Siegen 1577 - 1640 Antwerp
The lion hunt
oil on canvas, unframed
canvas: 85 by 123 in.; 216 by 313 cm.
Condition Report
Provenance
Possibly offered by Rubens to Sir Dudley Carleton, 28 April 1618;
Possibly by whom gifted to Christian IV, King of Denmark, 11 September 1618;
The Revd. the Hon. Frederic Hamilton (d. 1811);
John Hickman, St. James's St., London;
His posthumous sale, London, Christie's, 20 March 1847, lot 76 (for £300 to Colville);
Sold Privatley through Mr. Eckford to the 2nd Lord Northwick (d. 1859);
His sale, Thirlestane House, Phillips, 23 August 1859, lot 1688 (for 150 gns.);
There acquired by George, 3rd Lord Northwick, Northwick Park;
Thence by descent to his Grandson, Capt. E.G. Spencer-Churchill, Northwick Park, 1912;
By whom sold, London, Christie's, 20 October 1965, lot 39 (for 5500 gns. to Somerset de Chair);
By whom sold, St. Osyth's Priory, Sotheby's, 19 March 1975, lot 66;
Where acquired by a private collector;
From whom acquired by the present owner, 1986.
Literature
A Catalogue of the Pictures in the galleries of Thirlsetaine House, Cheltenham, the Residence of Lord Northwick, 1855, cat. no. 155;
A Catalogue of the Pictures, Works of Arts, etc., at Northwick Park, 1864 (reprinted 1908), cat. no. 7;
Redford, Art Sales, vol. I, pp. 156-7;
M. Rooses, L'œuvre de P.P. Rubens, Antwerp 1890, vol. IV, p. 337, under cat. no. 1150. p. 337, under cat. no, 1153;
M. Rooses and C. Ruelens, ed. Correspondance de Rubens et documents épistolaires concernant sa vie et ses oeuvres, vol. 2, Antwerp 1898, pp. 137, 142, 149-150, 162, 165, 170, 181, 186;
T. Borenius, A Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures at Northwick Park, 1921, pp. 71-72, cat. no. 155;
A. Hind, Rubens, p. 6, under cat. no. 1;
R.S. Magurn, The Letters of Peter Paul Rubens, Cambridge 1955, pp. 61-62 64-65, 67;
C. Isermeyer, Die Jagd in der Kunst, Hamburg 1965, p. 33;
D. Rosand, "Rubens's Munich Lion Hunt: Its Sources and Significance", in The Art Bulletin, Vol. 51, No. 1, March 1969, p. 30, no. 8, reproduced, fig. 5;
G. Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Flemish School, circa 1600-circa 1900, 1970, p. 185, note 3;
The Somerset de Chair Collection at St. Osyth's Priory, 1971, p. 11, reproduced in color;
E. Haverkamp-Begemann, "Flemish School”, in European Paintings in the Collection of the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Mass., 1974, p. 211;
M. Jaffé, "Exhibitions for the Rubens Year, III", in The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXX, 1978, p. 346, no. 95;
J.S. Held, The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens, Princeton 1980, vol. I. pp. 407, under cat. no. 298;
K.J. Müllenmeister, Meer und Land im Licht des 17 Jahrunderts, Bremen 1981, vol. III, p. 38, cat. no. 4, reproduced;
A. Balis, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, London 1986, vol. XVIII, 2, Hunting Scenes, under cat. no. 6, copy 1.
Exhibited
Pedro Pablo Rubens (1577-1649). Exposición homenaje, Palacio de Velázquez, Madrid December 1977-March 1978, no. 95 (as P.P. Rubens).
Catalogue note
A group of six horseback riders engage in fierce battle with a lion and lioness in this incredibly impressive hunting scene. The intertwined, explosively complex composition, was a type that Rubens developed from circa 1616 for an eager European market. Their large scale was specifically chosen for buyers often times seeking a replacement for similarly scaled tapestries. The example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art of a Wolf and Fox Hunt (acc. no. 10.73) is considered the earliest known work of this sub-genre.
This particular picture was almost certainly executed by Rubens' studio as a high quality version after a now destroyed prime original formerly in the Bordeaux museum. It is furthermore probably the canvas which Rubens described himself in a letter dated 28 April 1618 in which the artist lists a group of paintings to be offered to the collector Sir Dudley Carleton in exchange for a collection of antique sculpture. The dating of the letter thus provides a terminus ante quem for the picture and places it within close proximity to the Metropolitan composition. In that letter, Rubens describes to Carleton his intimate involvement in the picture's execution, noting that it was fully "retouched" by his own hand, an indication of how attribution and authenticity were perceived at the time amidst Rubens' extremely busy workshop production. Though Carleton originally rejected the picture on the grounds of it not being entirely by Rubens' own hand, it was at Rubens' own explanation that it was so well "finished" by himself that it should be considered nearly indistinguishable from other more wholly autograph pictures. The picture was eventually accepted as part of the exchange following Rubens' own explanation of his involvement.1
Arnout Balis, in his thorough examination of the relationship between this composition and that of the destroyed original, as well as the later copies of the original (allowing for comparison with the original), notes certain differences amongst the canvases. Notably, the turban of the horseman at left is striped, and he has a strap over his left shoulder. His horse has more space between it and the lion; part of the left thigh of the half-naked man on the ground can be seen behind the horses' right hind leg. The composition here is also wider on all four sides, which may offer insight into the original design of the destroyed Bordeaux original.
1. See Literature, Balis 1986, pp. 125-130.