Last
week’s “Moments in Art” recounted how John Paul
Rubens purchased a collection of Greco-Roman artifacts from Sir
Dudley Carleton, Britain’s Ambassador to Holland, for 1000
florins and a collection of his paintings.
As
we have seen, one of the paintings Lord Carleton acquired in the
deal, a Daniel in the Lion’s Den, was
described by Rubens as “painted entirely by me.” But as
an official of our National Gallery said rhetorically
in underscoring the dilemma of the expert, “Can you believe
Rubens?”
Rubens Self Portrait
Rubens
sometimes painted a subject several times, and often his students or
assistants would paint replicas of his work. Rubens might, or might
not, add his personal touch to the replicas.
After
Carleton Daniel in the Lion’s
Den eventually went into the Royal
Collection of Charles I, but before the English king was beheaded he
gave the painting to the Duke of Hamilton for some service. It was
seen in the Hamilton collection as late as the 19th
century by Gustav F. Waagen.
Waagen
(1794-1868) was a German art historian who became director of the
Berlin museum. In England he compiled The
Treasures of Art in Great Britain, four
volumes that even today remain a key in tracing provenances of
important paintings.
Towards
the end of the century Daniel in the
Lion’s Den was sold by someone in
the Hamilton family. Then it was bought back by another Hamilton a
few years later.
About
this time another Daniel
was discovered in a church on the Isle of
Man (not to mention still another in Vienna). A newspaper story
declared that the Isle of Man Daniel was the
genuine one. The newspaper reproduction was poor, but the art world
decided the nearly inaccessible Daniel
in the middle of the Irish sea was in deed the genuine Rubens.
Because
of these conflicting stories the newest purchaser of the Hamilton Daniel
preferred to keep his ownership secret. He had made an unfortunate
buy, and he did not want to look silly. Samewise, museum directors do
not like to admit the fakes stowed in their vaults.
So
the original Rubens disappeared from view.
Actually
Daniel in the Lion’s Den hung for
60 years or so in the purchaser's high-ceilinged English office,
where it was pretty much forgotten except as a piece of decorative
art, a replica. When the company decided to move to a new building,
the big old Daniel
just didn't fit into the low-ceilinged new decor, and the painting
was turned out to pasture.
Daniel
was sent to an obscure auction house for disposal, but before the
gaveling date it was seen and purchased by a London dealer, who
legally exported it — as a copy — out of England. The
dealer’s purchase price — probably less than 1000
pounds.
Today
this Daniel in the Lion’s
Den hangs in the National Gallery on
Constitution Avenue, Washington, D.C.
Rubens, Daniel in the Lyon’s Den, National Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Detail from the painting
The
National Gallery’s comment on the painting: “During the
Reformation, struggling to counter the rising tide of Protestantism,
the Catholic Church celebrated the role of early Christian martyrs as
a means to excite the faithful to a comparable spirit of religious
fervor. Only by having gone through similar depths of despair could
an individual truly appreciate the extent of Christ’s
suffering. Daniel provided a positive exemplar of a martyr who
survived harsh persecution though personal faith, strength,
constancy, and endurance.”
Daniel
is a huge painting, 88 x 130". Since there were no lions in
Antwerp, Rubens went to Bruxelles, where the Royal Menagerie
possessed two North African Moroccan lions, a sub-species now extinct
in the wild. “Their fangs shine, their tales swish.”
Lawrence Jeppson is an art consultant, organizer and curator of art exhibitions, writer, editor
and publisher, lecturer, art historian, and appraiser. He is America's leading authority on
modern, handwoven French tapestries. He is expert on the works of William Henry Clapp, Nat
Leeb, Tsing-fang Chen, and several French artists.
He is founding president of the non-profit Mathieu Matégot Foundation for Contemporary
Tapestry, whose purview encompasses all 20th-century tapestry, an interest that traces back to
1948. For many years he represented the Association des Peintres-Cartonniers de Tapisserie and
Arelis in America.
Through the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, the American Federation of
Arts, the Museum of Modern Art, and his own Art Circuit Services he has been a contributor to
or organizer of more than 200 art exhibitions in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Taiwan.
He owns AcroEditions, which publishes and/or distributes multiple-original art. He was co-founder and artistic director of Collectors' Investment Fund.
He is the director of the Spring Arts Foundation; Utah Cultural Arts Foundation, and the Fine
Arts Legacy Foundation
Lawrence is an early-in-the-month home teacher, whose beat is by elevator. In addition, he has spent the past six years hosting and promoting reunions of the missionaries who served in the French Mission (France, Belgium, and Switzerland) during the decade after WWII.