A copy after Rubens's The Abduction of the Sabine Women (fig. 1), now in Antwerp, Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, Huis Osterrieth, J.S. Held, The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens, A Critical Catalogue, Princeton, 1980, no. 283, illustrated. The painting, one of a pair with The Reconciliation of the Sabine Women, comes from the collection of the Prince de Rubempré, sold in Brussels, 11 April 1765, lot 62. It was later in the Daniel Danoot sale, Brussels, 22-23 December 1828 and thereafter passed in an English collection before returning to Belgium. These paintings were also copied in black chalk and watercolor by Philippe-Joseph Tassaert (1736-1803). The latter drawings are now in the Hermitage.
The attribution of the present drawing was confirmed by Eunice Williams