drawing
- Museum number
- 1949,0413.1
- Description
-
Crocodile and hippopotamus hunt; the animals surrounded by men on horseback with spears, a man with a dagger partly underneath the crocodile at left; after Peter Paul Rubens
Brush drawing in brown and grey wash, and black chalk; squared for transfer; lower half incised
- Production date
- 1618-1624 (c.)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 432 millimetres
-
Width: 558 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- After the painting by Rubens in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. An engraving in reverse is made by Soutman (Schneevoogt 228.31.11; lacking in BM collection). The drawing is unfinished and squared for transfer, which could indicate this sheet was used to transfer the composition onto a larger scale. The incisions could indicate that it was as an engraver's study (possibly Soutman) in order to transfer the composition onto the copper-plate, or more likely (as this sheet is unfinished) to create a second version which could serve as the final print study.
Literature: K. Barrett, 'Pieter Soutman: Life and Oeuvre' (Oculi: Studies in the Art of the Low Countries), Amsterdam, 2012, cat.no.DR8, fig.D9 (attributed to Anthony van Dyck).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2004 June-Sep, Antwerp, Koninklijk Mus Voor Schone Kunsten, Rubens and the Art of Printmaking
2004-2005 Oct-Jan, Québec, Musée du Québec, Rubens and the Art of Printmaking
- Acquisition date
- 1949
- Acquisition notes
- Ernst H. Ehlers (Goettingen, 1835-1925) inherited the drawing from H. W. Campe (1770-1862, collector in Leipzig); Ehlers' collection was sold after his death at auction in Leipzig (Handzeichnungen aus der Sammlung des verstorbenen Geheimrats E. Ehlers, Göttingen und einige wenige andere Beiträge: deutsche Meister des XIX. Jahrhunderts; deutsche Meister des XVII. und XVIII. Jahrhunderts; ältere französische, italienische, niederländische und Schweizer Meister, Boerner, 27.xi.1935, lot 494); Charles Albert de Burlet (1882-1956; dealer in Basel and Berlin) sold this drawing to Count Seilern in 1948. There remains an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45. The British Museum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
This drawing was checked against the Art Loss Register (3 July 2013; ref.no.S00076096; the certificate is kept with the file).
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1949,0413.1
