- Museum number
- 1933,0211.3
- Description
-
Nessus and Deianeira, after Rubens, from a picture formerly in the Le Brun Collection; the centaur about to ravish the nude Deianeira who is half on his back and standing on one leg, drapery around her, an arrow in the centaur's side, both figures looking to left
Watercolour, heightened with white (partly discoloured)
- Production date
- 1747-1806
- Dimensions
-
Height: 426 millimetres
-
Width: 341 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Karl Parker first published this as Fragonard noting another watercolour copy in the Louvre, Paris, after the same Rubens canvas, most likely the one now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg that the dealer Le Brun sold to Prince Alexandre Stroganoff. Fragonard's drawn copies perhaps date from around the same time as Christian Gottfried Schulze's engraving of 1778 after the painting (BM impression, 1851,0326.10). The Louvre version (R.F. 25; no. 217 in 1987 exhibition) is probably the earlier of the two as it more spontaneous in its execution and a more faithful to Rubens's work (for example, in the inclusion of Deianira's drapery, a detail only sketchily shown in the BM work).
Lit.: K.T. Parker, 'A Drawing by Fragonard after Rubens', "The British Museum Quarterly", VII, 1933, p. 105; A. Ananoff, 'L'oeuvre dessiné de Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806): catalogue raisonné', Paris, 1963, II, no. 1104, p. 189; P. Rosenberg, in exhib. cat, Paris, Grand Palais and New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 'Fragonard', 1987 (reference to 1988 NY edition), under no. 217, p. 448, fig. 1; "Rubens and his Legacy: from Van Dyck to Cézanne", exh.cat. Bozar Brussels and Royal Academy of Arts London, 2015, cat.no. 64.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1968, London, Royal Academy, France in the XVIIIc, No 250
2014-5, Sep-Jan, Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 'Rubens and his Legacy'
2015, Jan-Apr, London, RA, 'Rubens and his Legacy'
- Acquisition date
- 1933
- Acquisition notes
- Purchased by the NACF for £60 for presentation to the BM. See the letter from A M Hind to the NACF dated 21 December 1932, giving the name of the vendor Mrs John Holmes of 54 Hoghton Street, Southport. The valuation had been made by Colnaghi's at the BM's request, which shows that the drawing had been brought to the BM for an opinion and after being identified was offered by the owner for purchase. Published by K.T.Parker in BMQ VII 1932-3, p.105.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1933,0211.3
