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| Artist | Boeckhorst, Jan (German painter and draftsman, 1605-1668, active in Flanders) |
| Previous attributions | Previously attributed to Dyck, Anthony van (Flemish painter, 1599-1641, active in England) Previously attributed to Rubens, Peter Paul (Flemish painter and draftsman, 1577-1640) |
| Title | The Vision of St Hubert |
| Date earliest | about 1665 |
| Date latest | about 1666 |
| Material | oil on paper (laid on panel {mahogany}) |
| Measurements | 47 x 34 cm (estimate) |
| Description | This oil sketch tells the story of St Hubert who was said to have seen a crucifix appear between the antlers of a stag when hunting one Good Friday. His servant restrains the startled horse and the hounds cower in fright as Hubert listens to hear God's message. Probably a preparatory work, the composition and colours are consistent with Jan Boeckhorst's finished painting of the same subject, now at St Michielskerk in Ghent. Previous confusion over the attribution of the study, first to Pieter Paul Rubens then to Anthony van Dyck, demonstrates the influence of these artists on Boeckhorst's technique. |
| Subject | religion (the Vision of St Hubert); figure; animal (horse, stag, dogs) |
| Collection | Mount Edgcumbe House |
| Current accession number | Plymm.014 |
| Acquisition details | Given in lieu of tax from the estate of Edward Piers, 7th Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, 1985. |
| Principal exhibitions | Seventeenth-Century Art in Europe, Royal Academy, London, 1938, cat. no. 105, as by Peter Paul Rubens. |
| Principal publications | Catalogue of the Royal Academy Exhibition of Seventeenth-Century Art in Europe, 3rd Edition, London, 1938, p. 57, cat. no. 105, as by Peter Paul Rubens; Logan, A.-M., 'Jan Boeckhorst als tekenaar' in Jan Boeckhorst, 1604-1668; medewerker van Rubens, Antwerp, 1990, pp. 118-132 at p. 122, ill. fig. 81. |
| Notes | Related works: the finished work The Vision of St Hubert, 1666 (St Michielskerk, Ghent); preparatory drawings, Pushkin Museum, Moscow, and previously Herbert E. Feist Gallery, New York (see Logan, 1990, pp. 122, 174, 176, cat. nos.17 and 18). Back of panel: label, 'Royal Academy Exhibition of Seventeenth-Century European Art, 1938 / Rubens 'St Hubert'; handwritten, 'Rubens', '13', 'Mount Edgcumbe', 'centre', 'East end o[...?]' Recorded in inventory of paintings at Mount Edgcumbe House (possibly compiled before 1941): (Gallery) '§St Hubert and the Stag.§ / Size 1'6§ x 1'1§, Painted by Paul Rubens/'. |
| Rights status | Copyright Mount Edgcumbe Collection |
| Author | Dr Anne L. Cowe |
