The Garden of Love

Details

Circle of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577-1640 Antwerp)
The Garden of Love
oil on panel
49 x 68 in. (124.5 x 172.7 cm.)
in a late 18th Century English frame

Provenance

By descent through the Dukes of Leeds, Hornby Castle, Yorkshire, to the present owner.

Literature

Hornby Castle, Catalogue of Pictures, London, 1898, p. 19, no. 213, in the First Drawing Room.
Historical and descriptive catalogue of pictures belonging to His Grace The Duke of Leeds, London, 1902, p. 72, no. 213, in the First Drawing Room.

Exhibited

London, New Gallery, 1900, no. 122.

Special notice

All sold and unsold lots marked with a filled square in the catalogue that are not cleared from Christie’s by 5:00 pm on the day of the sale, and all sold and unsold lots not cleared from Christie’s by 5:00 pm on the fifth Friday following the sale, will be removed to the warehouse of ‘Cadogan Tate’. Please note that there will be no charge to purchasers who collect their lots within two weeks of this sale.

Lot Essay

This composition closely relates to the panel depicting the same subject at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, which Peter C. Sutton considers another version painted by Rubens of the canvas in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Compared to the Prado version, the present lot and the Waddesdon version extend the composition with additional figures, as well as transform the venus lactans seated on a dolphin in the upper right into a standing female statue based on a bronze by Francesco di Sant’Agata.

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