Art Institute of ChicagoPublic domain

The Capture of Samson

Peter Paul Rubens · 1609–10

Provenance

Ownership history

Probably in the collection of the artist, Antwerp, until his death in 1640 and then included in a large lot of oil sketches in his estate sale, 1642 [Jeffrey M. Muller, “Oil-Sketches in Rubens’s Collection,” Burlington Magazine 117 (1975), pp. 374-75, and Held 1980, p. 11, argue that the oil sketches were disposed of in this way]. Frank T. Sabin Gallery, London, by 1914 [Arundel Club 1914, no. 14]; sold through W.R. Valentiner to the Art Institute, November 1923 [as by Van Dyck, according to a letter of August 1, 1923 from Valentiner to Robert Harshe in Art Institute archives and receipt from Sabin dated November 5, 1923, copies in curatorial file].

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

Exhibition history

Detroit Institute of Arts, Eighth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters. Paintings by Anthony van Dyck, April 3 - April 20, 1929, no. 10, as Van Dyck.
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress. Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1 – November 1, 1933, no. 77.
Detroit Institute of Arts, An Exhibition of Sixty Paintings and some Drawings by Peter Paul Rubens, February 13 – March 15, 1936, no. 37.
Cincinnati, Cincinnati Art Museum, Nicolas Poussin, Peter Paul Rubens, 5 February – 8 March, 1948, no. 1.
New York, Wildenstein, A Loan Exhibition of Rubens, February 20 –March 31, 1951, no. 3.
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans, Olieverfschetsen van Rubens, 1953, no. 6.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fogg Art Museum, January 14 – February 29, 1956 and New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, March 20 – April 28, 1956, Drawings and Oil Sketches by P. P. Rubens from American Collections, no. 28.
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, September 4 – November 22, 1992, Von Bruegel bis Rubens. Das goldene Jahrhundert der flämische Malerei, cat. 44.4; Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, December 12, 1992 – March 8, 1993; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, April 2– June 20, 1993.
Cincinnati, Cincinnati Art Museum, Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens, 11 June 2005 – 11 September 2005, no. 3.
London, National Gallery, Rubens: A Master in the Making, 26 October 2005 – 15 January 2006, no. 73.
Antwerp, Rockexhuis, Samson and Delilah: A Ruben Painting Returns, November 16, 2007–February 10, 2008, cat. 4;Vienna, Liechtenstein Museum, February 29 – May 25, 2008.
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, Rubens: Painter of Sketches, April 9– August 5, 2018, cat. 6; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beunigen, September 9, 2018 – January 13, 2019.

Literature

Published references

The Arundel Club for the Publication of Reproduction of Works of Art in Private Collections and Elsewhere (London, 1914), n. p., no. 14, ill.
R[ose] M[ary] F[ischkin], “An Early Sketch by Van Dyck,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 18 (1924), pp. 35-37, ill.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago, 1925), p. 135, no. 25.
L. Burchard, “Skizzen des jungen Rubens,” Sitzungs-Berichte der Kunstgeschichtlichen Gesellschaft Berlin (October 1926/May 1927), pp 3, 4, no. 20.
E. Tietze-Conrat, “Van Dyck’s Samson and Delilah,” Burlington Magazine 61 (1932), p. 246, pl. B.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago, 1932), p. 152.
L[udwig] Burchard in Gustav Glück, Rubens, Van Dyck und ihr Kreis, ed. L. Burchard and Robert Eigenberger (Vienna, 1933), p. 395.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1935), p. 23.
Hans Tietze, Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika (Vienna, 1935), p. 335, no. 154, ill.
Ella S. Siple, “Art in America—The Rubens Exhibition at Detroit,” Burlington Magazine 68 (1936), p. 244.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1941), p. 29.
Hans Gerhard Evers, Rubens und sein Werk: Neue Forschungen (Brussels, 1943), pp. 162, 163, 165, fig. 66.

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