Reclining female nude seen from the back, red chalk, heightened with white, on laid paper, 25,2 x 18,7 cm, an old collector’s mount, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Collection Prosper Henry Lankrink (1628-1692), London, Lugt 2090;
inscribed "from the collection of Phillipe Huart of Paris" on old mount;
anonymous collectors mark “episcopal coat of arms” (not in Lugt);
collection Robert von Hirsch (1883-1977), Frankfurt, Basel, No. 453;
his auction sale, Sotheby's London, 20th June 1978, lot 34 (as Peter Paul Rubens);
Private property, Austria.

The drawing will be included in Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard Vol. XXVIII "Drawings not related" in preparation.

Literature:
Catherine Whistler, Jeremy Wood (Eds.), Rubens in Oxford. An Exhibition of Drawings from Christ Church and the Ashmolean Museum, Exh. cat. Oxford, The Picture Gallery, Christ Church, 25th April – 20th May 1988, Cat. 4, Fig. 9, p. 30.

The present dawing of the back of a female nude belongs to the few known nude studies of Peter Paul Rubens, which he may have executed after female models. A comparable drawing of the same model in another pose is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford („A Female Nude Reclining“, red chalk, heightened with white chalk, 25 x 17,8 cm., Inv. Nr. WA1954.146). The similarities between the two depicted women suggest, that they could have been the same nude model or sculpture, which was rendered from two different perspectives.

The drawings were juxtaposed for the first time in 1988 in the Ashmoleon museum’s exhibition catalogue „Rubens in Oxford“ where their similarities were examined in order to determine whether the model or a sculpture from antiquity could have served as model. (J. Wood/ C. Whistler (Eds.), „Rubens in Oxford: An exhibition of drawings from Christ Church and the Ashmolean Museum, Ausst. Kat. Oxford 25th April – 20th May 1988, Cat. 4., p. 29-31). While in 1986 Julius Held assumed on the basis of stylistic criteria, that two studies were executed after life (Exh. Cat. Oxford 1988, p. 29, n. 3.), Michael Jaffé discussed them in the context of Rubens’s studies after antiquity (M. Jaffé, „Rubens as a drauchtsman“, Burlington Magazine, CVII, 1965, p. 380, No. 17). The vigorously foreshortened viewpoint of the two figures can also be observed in his studies after sculptures, such as in the drawing after a statuette by Conrat Meit in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin (Inv. Nr. Kdz. 14713) and in the studies after Michelangelo’s „Notte“ in the Fondation Custodia, Paris (Inv. Nr. 5.251; Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Vol. 26 (2011), No. 201). The elongated neck of both women may suggest, that also a 16th-century bronze could have served as a model.

Held had pointed out that Rubens’s copies after sculptures show a more specific and more subtle observation of light as well as of the surfaces, as can be seen in Rubens’s studies after Michelangelo’s “Notte”. However, the two drawings considered here and their contrasting white heightenings also evoke the effect of a glossy surface, which can also be observed in the “Study of a sleeping woman” in the Courtauld Gallery (Inv. Nr. PG62) in London. The drawing in London offers stylistically as well as technically an interesting comparison as in this sheet the white highlights may remind one of the light reflections on the smooth surface of a sculpture, while the use of coloured chalks in red, black and white points to the study of a “Seated female nude” in the Musée du Louvre in Paris (Inv. Nr. 20.345). The latter may indeed have been executed after a living model, as suggested not only by the sitter’s frontal view but also by the more naturalistic depiction of her skin and the softer light refelections.

The drawing offered here, like the Oxford study, cannot be assigned to a painting by Rubens, leaving few clues as to the dating of the two works. While the Oxford sheet was still dated between 1600 and 1608 in the Ashmolean Report in 1955, Michael Jaffé suggested to date it to 1616, which was followed by Whistler and Wood in the catalogue „Rubens in Oxford“ in 1986 (exh. cat. Oxford 1988, p. 30) The difficulties to integrate the two drawings chronologically in the oeuvre of Rubens also led to doubts about their attribution, according to which Ann Marie Logan will not include them in her new catalogue raisonné of Rubens’s drawings (see: Anne-Marie Logan, Kristin Lohse Belkin, The Drawings of Peter Paul Rubens: A Critical Catalogue, Vol. I, Brepols 2021; Vol. II-III in preparation). In addition, at least in the present drawing there are probably retouchings by a later hand in the areas of the lower left back next to the arm, which in comparison with the other hatchings appear too coarse and do not do justice to the spatial proportions of the figure. Apart from that, in comparison with the Oxford sheet, the present nude study shows a large degree of correspondence in the drawing style and in the white heightenings; in addition, the dimensions of the sheets are almost identical. It is interesting to note that both sheets presumably were drawn on one sheet but were presumably separated at a later time. Even though it has not yet been possible to clarify the model and the dating of the two drawings, there is no question, that they must have been made at the same time.

The provenance of the present drawing offered here from the collections of Prosper Henry Lankrink (1628-1692) and Robert von Hirsch (1883-1977) attests to the great significance which was ascribed to the study in the past. Prosper Henry Lankrink was a collaborator in the workshop of Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680) and could acquire several drawings after the death of Lely. The quality of Lankrink’s art collection seems to have been excellent in general, which is not surprising if one considers the numerous possibilities of purchase during Lankrink’s lifetime, such as the dissolution of the collection of Lord Arundel and the one of Charles I. After his death Lankrink’s collection was dispersed in two sales in 1693 and 1694.

The handwritten note „from the collection of Philippe Huart of Paris“ on the present drawing’s cardboard support may go back to an erroneous assignment of the collector’s mark, which includes the same initials as the one of Prosper Henry Lankrink (Lugt 2090). The separation of the two halves of the sheet and of the hand-painted mount which carries the collector’s inscription may have been added in the 18th century. Afterwards, the drawing may have been kept for a long time in private possession from where it reached the collection of the German-Swiss leather manufacturer Robert von Hirsch (1883-1977), who presumably acquired it in the 1920s or 1930s.

Apart from his entrepreneurial activities Hirsch trained himself autodidactically as an art expert and built up his collection with the aid of Georg Swarzenski, who was then the director of the Städel Museum. Hirsch laid the focus of his collection on medieval as well as on Renaissance art, but also acquired historic furniture, applied art, carpets and tapestries and art of the 20th century. After his death in 1978 his collection was sold in several parts at an auction sale at Sotheby’s in London. The present drawing was offered on June 20th 1978 (lot 34) as a work by Peter Paul Rubens and subsequently came into an Austrian private collection.