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National Gallery of Art - THE COLLECTION
image of The Fall of Phaeton
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (artist)
Flemish, 1577 - 1640
The Fall of Phaeton, c. 1604/1605, probably reworked c. 1606/1608
oil on canvas
Overall: 98.4 x 131.2 cm (38 3/4 x 51 5/8 in.) framed: 125.4 x 159.4 x 5.7 cm (49 3/8 x 62 3/4 x 2 1/4 in.)
Patrons' Permanent Fund
1990.1.1
From the Tour: Sir Peter Paul Rubens
Object 1 of 8

Provenance

Probably in the collection of Susanna Willemsens [d. 1657], Antwerp.[1] (possibly General Gansell sale, Christie's, London, 25 February 1775, no. 81 [bought in for £67]).[2] James Du Pre Alexander, 3th earl of Caledon [1812-1855], London, before 1857;[3] by inheritance to his son, James Alexander, 4th earl of Caledon [1846-1898], London; by inheritance to his son, Eric James Desmond Alexander, 5th earl of Caledon [1885-1968], London; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 9 June 1939, no. 24, as by A.J. van Diepenbeck); Mrs. Sanderson, London; S. [Mrs. Gustave] Delbanco, London, by 1954;[4] Gustave Delbanco, London; purchased 5 January 1990 through (Ellin Mitchell, New York) by NGA.

[1] Listed as "Eenen Phaeton van Rubens, op doeck" in the inventory of Willemsens collection made in Antwerp on July 6, 1657. See Jean Denucé, The Antwerp art-galleries; inventories of the art collections in Antwerp in the 16th and 17th centuries, Antwerp, 1932: 197.

[2] Algernon Graves, Art Sales from Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century (Mostly Old Master and Early English Pictures), 3 vols., London, 1918-1921: 3(1921):109; Michael Jaffé, "Rubens in Italy: Rediscovered Works," The Burlington Magazome 100 (December 1958): 416.

[3] Gustav-Friedrich Waagen (Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of more than Forty Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Mss., &c.&c., [Forming a supplemental volume to the Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols.], London, 1857: 152), considered the painting to be a copy after Rubens.

[4] According to Jaffé 1958, 415 note 11.

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