Johnson Manuscript page - head of Hercules compared with a bull and a lion

by-nc

Title

Johnson Manuscript page - head of Hercules compared with a bull and a lion

Date of Production

(mid 18th century) 1725 - 1775

Medium

graphite, pen and brown ink on laid paper

Dimensions

Height: 20.6 cm
Width: 16 cm

Object Number

MS.1978.PG.1.53 (fol. 51)

Mode of Acquisition

Count Antoine Seilern, bequest, 1978

Credit

Courtauld Gallery, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: Recto, left centre edge, fragment: lower half of Arms of Amsterdam.

Inscription: Recto: upper right corner, brown ink, Rubens’s original foliation: “203.b.”; upper diagram labelled “1” at left centre, lower diagram labelled “2” at lower left centre, both in brown ink; upper diagram labelled, in brown ink: “C A B G F”; lower right corner, graphite, folio number: “51”.

Provenance

possibly Albert Rubens (1614-1657); bought by Captain Maurice Johnson, 1742/44 for his father, Maurice Johnson Sr., Spalding (1688-1755); by descent in Johnson and Marsden families; W.A. Marsden (book-plate, 1897); Christopher Marsden (bookplate, 1930); his sale, Sotheby's (London), 23-24 March, 1970, lot 179; purchased there via Maggs Bros. (London) by Count Antoine Seilern, London (1901-1978) (£2,600); Princes Gate Bequest 1978

Exhibition History

Rubens. The Power of Transformation, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, 17/10/2017-21/01/2018; Stadel Museum, Frankfurt, 08/02/2018-03/06/2018

Literature

Rubens. The Power of Transformation, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, 2017-18
cat. no. 28
Vander Auwera, Joost, Sabine van Sprang and Inga Rossi-Schrimpf, Rubens, a genius at work: the works of Peter Paul Rubens in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium reconsidered, Tielt 2007
pp. 57-58
fig. 6 on p. 58
A House of Art: Rubens as Collector, Rubenshuis, Antwerp, 2004
p. 20
fig. 12 on p. 20
...More
van der Meulen, Marjorie, Rubens copies after the Antique (CRLB), 3 vols, London 1994
vol. I, pp. 71, 79; vol. II, pp. 41-42, 45
Fig. p. vol. III, fig. 41
Jaffé, Michael, Van Dyck's Antwerp Sketchbook, London 1966
vol. I, pp. 31, 96n64; vol. II, p. 243
Fig. p. vol. I, fig. LXIII
...Less

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