Details

Provenance

Probably Juan de Dios Gómez de Silva y Mendoza (1672-1773), 6 th Duke of Pastrana and 10 th Duke of Infantado, among the many sketches and thirty-six paintings depicting mythological fables by Rubens in his posthumous inventory of 1 September 1737; Presumably thence by descent and among the thirty-six sketches in the 1737 inventory and the forty-five sketches in the 1773 inventory; George Augustus ("Giorgio Augusto") Wallis (1770-1847), Florence, and probably acquired by him in Spain, circa 1807-1813; His estate sale, Berlin, Heberle, 24 May 1895, lot 86; Where acquired by a private collector; Thence by descent to his granddaughter, Hope Taylor, by whom anonymously sold, New York, Sotheby's, 28 January 2000, lot 50; Where acquired by Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III.

Exhibited

Greenwich, Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Cincinnati Art Museum, Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens , 2 October 2004 - 11 September 2005, no. 36; Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Elegance and Wonder: Masterpieces of European Art from the Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III Collection , 20 March 2023 - 30 January 2025, no. 10.

Literature

M.J. Friedländer, "Versteigerung der Gemäldesammlung von Giorgio Augusto Wallis, etc.," in Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 18 (1895), p. 241; M. Jaffé, "Esquisses inédites de Rubens pour La Torre della Parada," in La Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France 14, no. 6 (1964), pp. 313-322; S. Alpers, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Part IX, The Decoration of the Torre de la Parada , New York and London 1971, pp. 199-200, cat. no. 16a, reproduced fig. 93; J.S. Held, The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens, A Critical Catalogue , Princeton 1980, vol. I, pp. 269-270, cat. no. 183; M. Jaffé, Rubens, Catalogo completo, Milan 1989, p. 356, cat. no. 1257; P.C. Sutton , in Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens , exhibition catalogue, P.C. Sutton and M.E. Wieseman (eds.), New Haven and London 2004, pp. 236-239, cat. no. 36, reproduced; A.K. Wheelock, Jr., in With Observation and Imagination: Still Lifes, Genre Scenes, Portraits, and Landscapes from the Saunders Collection , exhibition catalogue, A.K. Wheelock, Jr. (ed.), New York 2021, pp. 55-57, 167-168, cat. no. 10, reproduced.

Catalog summary

Lot Details Description Sir Peter Paul Rubens Siegen 1577 - 1640 Antwerp Abduction of Dejanira by Nessus oil on oak panel panel: 7 ⅜ by 5 ⅝ in.; 18.7 by 14.3 cm (with additions of approximately 2 mm on the right and left edges) framed: 15 ⅜ by 14 in.; 39.1 by 35.6 cm Provenance Probably Juan de Dios Gómez de Silva y Mendoza (1672-1773), 6 th Duke of Pastrana and 10 th Duke of Infantado, among the many sketches and thirty-six paintings depicting mythological fables by Rubens in his posthumous inventory of 1 September 1737; Presumably thence by descent and among the thirty-six sketches in the 1737 inventory and the forty-five sketches in the 1773 inventory; George Augustus ("Giorgio Augusto") Wallis (1770-1847), Florence, and probably acquired by him in Spain, circa 1807-1813; His estate sale, Berlin, Heberle, 24 May 1895, lot 86; Where acquired by a private collector; Thence by descent to his granddaughter, Hope Taylor, by whom anonymously sold, New York, Sotheby's, 28 January 2000, lot 50; Where acquired by Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III. Exhibited Greenwich, Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences; Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Cincinnati Art Museum, Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens , 2 October 2004 - 11 September 2005, no. 36; Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Elegance and Wonder: Masterpieces of European Art from the Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III Collection , 20 March 2023 - 30 January 2025, no. 10. Literature M.J. Friedländer, "Versteigerung der Gemäldesammlung von Giorgio Augusto Wallis, etc.," in Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 18 (1895), p. 241; M. Jaffé, "Esquisses inédites de Rubens pour La Torre della Parada," in La Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France 14, no. 6 (1964), pp. 313-322; S. Alpers, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Part IX, The Decoration of the Torre de la Parada , New York and London 1971, pp. 199-200, cat. no. 16a, reproduced fig. 93; J.S. Held, The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens, A Critical Catalogue , Princeton 1980, vol. I, pp. 269-270, cat. no. 183; M. Jaffé, Rubens, Catalogo completo, Milan 1989, p. 356, cat. no. 1257; P.C. Sutton , in Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens , exhibition catalogue, P.C. Sutton and M.E. Wieseman (eds.), New Haven and London 2004, pp. 236-239, cat. no. 36, reproduced; A.K. Wheelock, Jr., in With Observation and Imagination: Still Lifes, Genre Scenes, Portraits, and Landscapes from the Saunders Collection , exhibition catalogue, A.K. Wheelock, Jr. (ed.), New York 2021, pp. 55-57, 167-168, cat. no. 10, reproduced.