Christie’s to offer Rubens’s masterpiece ‘Lot and his Daughters’

Sir Peter Paul Rubens
Lot and his Daughters (circa 1613-1614)

Christie’s to offer Rubens’s ‘Lot and his Daughters’ Sir Peter Paul Rubens’s masterpiece, Lot and his Daughters (circa 1613-1614) will be sold by Christie’s as the centerpiece of a curated week of sales, Classic Week, in London, July 2016.]]>

March 14, 2016, source: Christie’s

This work is an outstanding example of Rubens’s early maturity and one of the most important paintings by the artist to have remained in private hands. The work has been hidden from public view for over a century and will be exhibited during Christie’s New York Classic Week (8 – 12 April 2016) and in Hong Kong (26 – 30 May 2016), before being offered in London Classic Week, leading the Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale on 7 July. «Lot and his Daughters» boasts a distinguished provenance, once forming part of the collections of wealthy Antwerp merchants; a Governor-General of the Spanish Netherlands; Joseph I Holy Roman Emperor; and the Dukes of Marlborough. It was included in the first volume of «The English Connoisseur» from 1766 and has since been listed in all the major publications on Rubens’s work. The sale of this painting by the quintessential artist of the Northern Baroque presents a rare opportunity for both international collectors and institutions.

At the time that Rubens painted «Lot and his Daughters», his reputation as the most important and fashionable artist in Antwerp had already put him at the centre of the European artistic stage. Having worked in Rome at the court of Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, he was appointed court painter in Brussels to the Archdukes Albert and Isabella in 1609. During this period, Rubens produced some of the most well-known works of his œuvre, including two monumental altarpieces, «The Raising of the Cross», commissioned in 1610 for the church of St Walburga, and «The Descent from the Cross», painted in 1611–1614 for Antwerp Cathedral. In addition to these public works, Rubens carried out a number of private commissions, instilling traditional religious subjects, such as «Lot and his Daughters», with an exciting new energy.

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