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Lot Essay
Part of a series of heads of Silenus executed in black chalk, one of which is in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow (A. Balisin, Fiamminghi a Roma, exhib. cat., Bruxelles, Palais des Beaux-Arts and elsewhere, 1995, no. 168 and M. van der Meulen, Rubens Copies after the Antique in Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, London, 1994, II, no. 33(1)) and another in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, M. van der Meulen, op. cit., no. 33(2). The Pushkin and New York drawings differ in the presence of hair in the latter, a common point shared with the Normand drawing.
Michael Jaff dated the Pushkin drawing to Rubens' Italian period, M. Jaff, Rubens and Italy, London, 1977, p. 82.
A larger copy, or version, after the present drawing was sold in these Rooms 29 November 1983, lot 136, M. van der Meulen, op. cit., no. 33(4). This group of drawings was owned in the 18th Century by Richardson Senior and Thomas Hudson. A. Balis (op. cit., no. 168) recorded that in the 17th Century they were in the collection of a Flemish artist called Hab who befriended Rubens and the drawings were acquired in the late 17th Century by Padre Resta along with a group of copies after the antique now in the Ambrosiana, Milan. The Rubens drawings probably passed into England with the Somers drawings, later catalogued by Richardson.
We are grateful to Jeremy Wood for his help in cataloguing the present lot.
Michael Jaff dated the Pushkin drawing to Rubens' Italian period, M. Jaff, Rubens and Italy, London, 1977, p. 82.
A larger copy, or version, after the present drawing was sold in these Rooms 29 November 1983, lot 136, M. van der Meulen, op. cit., no. 33(4). This group of drawings was owned in the 18th Century by Richardson Senior and Thomas Hudson. A. Balis (op. cit., no. 168) recorded that in the 17th Century they were in the collection of a Flemish artist called Hab who befriended Rubens and the drawings were acquired in the late 17th Century by Padre Resta along with a group of copies after the antique now in the Ambrosiana, Milan. The Rubens drawings probably passed into England with the Somers drawings, later catalogued by Richardson.
We are grateful to Jeremy Wood for his help in cataloguing the present lot.