- Museum number
- 1910,0212.207
- Description
-
Christ on the Cross, with the Virgin, St John and the Magdalene below, study for a painting; rough sketch with Christ indicated twice at centre, St John supporting the fainting Virgin. c.1627-32
Pen and brown ink, with brown wash, heightened with white, on blue paper, squared for transfer
Verso: Sketches of figures in drapery and a man on horseback
Pen and brown ink, over some black chalk, on blue paper
- Production date
- 1627-1632 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 271 millimetres
-
Width: 195 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Van Dyck painted several Crucifixions across his career, and in particular following his return from Italy in 1627. This was in part due to the impact of Rubens’ grisaille Coup de Lance that was installed in the Church of the Récollets in Antwerp circa 1620 and in continuation of the Crucifixion that Van Dyck himself had painted circa 1618 that is now in the Louvre (inv. 1766). The present drawing does not correspond exactly to any of these extant works, but represents a mid-point between the Louvre Crucifixion and the altarpiece originally intended for the Monastery of the Récollects in Lille and now in the city’s Palais des Beaux Arts (inv. P.89). The orientation of the crucifix is more revolved to the right in the completed painting. Support, however, for this connection can be found in the sketches on the verso of three groups of figures which correspond to similar grouping in another sheet of studies for a Crucifixion in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris (see Vey 1962, no.123). Elements from both drawings correspond to the Lille Crucifixion such as the sketch of Saint John reaching to the Virgin on the verso of the present sheet. The squaring of the composition on the recto suggests that Van Dyck transferred elements of the composition to another sheet for further exploration. For another Crucifixion study by Van Dyck also in the BM see inv. no.Gg,2.235.
Lit: H. Vey, ‘Die Zeichnungens Anton von Dycks’, Brussels, 1962, no. 124; C. Brown, 'The Drawings of Anthony van Dyck', exhib.cat. The Pierpont Morgan Library (New York) and Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth), New York, 1991, no.49; Susan J. Barnes, Nora de Poorter, O. Miller, H. Vey, 'Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings', New Haven, 2004, cat.no.III.25; N. Van Hout, 'On the Invention and Execution of the Coup de Lance', in Rubens Bulletin KMSKA 3 (2011), pp.8-9 (as related to Rubens' painting Coup de Lance in Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp, inv.no.297).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1978 Oct-Dec, Princeton Uni. AG, 'Van Dyck's Religious Works', no. 41
1991 Feb-Apr, Pierpont Morgan Library, 'Van Dyck', no. 49
1991 June-Aug, Kimbell Museum, Fort Worth, 'Van Dyck', no. 49
- Acquisition date
- 1910
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1910,0212.207