- Museum number
- 1885,0509.48
- Description
-
Portrait of Pieter van Hecke, study for a painting; three-quarter length, standing almost to right but looking to left, wearing ruff, doublet and mantle, his left hand extended and holding a hat. c.1618
Charcoal (?), on light grey paper
Verso: Two studies for a St Cecilia; head, bust and hand playing at right, and the drapery of an arm at left
Charcoal (?), on light grey paper
- Production date
- 1630-1635 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 413 millimetres
-
Width: 345 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Though the identification of the sitter is not entirely certain, the male figure has been long identified as Pieter van Hecke, husband of Rubens's sister-in-law, Clara Fourment. The drawing on the recto is now accepted as the original study for the portrait formerly in the collection of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, Paris, and now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague (Rooses 966). The attribution to Rubens, and the corresponding dating to the 1630s is corroborated by the studies on the verso. The gestures of the arm cand the draped sleeve can be identified as studies for the Saint Cecilia in the Staatliche Museum of Berlin (inv. 781; Rooses 403). The trimming of the sheet indicates that it once comprised part of a larger sheet with more figural studies.
Literature: J.S. Held, 'Rubens Selected Drawings', 1986, no.146; Corpus Rubenianum; vol.XIX(II), pp.117-8, no.107a, fig. 127; J. Rowlands, ‘Rubens: Drawings and Sketches’, exhibition catalogue, British Museum,1977, no. 81; P. van der Ploeg, 'Twee portretten door Rubens', Mauritshuis in Focus, 13, no.3, 2000, pp.15-16, repr. fig.8 [and vol.16, no.3, 2003, p.22, repr. fig.12] (suggests that the painted portrait is most convincingly dated around 1620-22; in the second article dates them 'shortly after 1630' because of the drawing, the verso of which is related to the Berlin painting of the 1630s).
Rowlands, Rubens: Drawings and Sketches, BMP, 1977
The drawing on the recto is a preparatory study for the portrait-painting of Pieter van Hecke formerly in the collection of Edmond de Rothschild, Paris. The sitter was the husband of Clara Fourment, the artist's sister-in-law. Despite the attribution of this portrait by many scholars to Van Dyck, there is no doubt that the present drawing is by Rubens. This is given corroboration by the fact that the studies on the verso are connected with Rubens's painting of 'St Cecilia' in Berlin.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1977 BM, Rubens drawings and sketches, no.81
1995 Aug-Oct, Edinburgh, Scottish NPG, 'Regency Artists', no. 206
1995/6 Nov-Feb, London, NPG, 'Regency Artists', no. 206
2009/10 Nov-Jan BM, P&D, 'Rubens Drawings' (no cat.)
2015 Mar-Jun, Antwerp, Rubenshuis, Rubens: The Family Portraits
- Acquisition date
- 1885
- Acquisition notes
- Thibaudeau acted as an agent for the British Museum at the Russell sale in December 1884, see 1885,0509.1574-1607. Some of the other drawings Thibaudeau purchased at the same sale were subsequently sold to the British Museum in 1885; see 1885,0509.33-51 and 1885,0711.271-303.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1885,0509.48
