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Lot Essay
This unpublished drawing is an important addition to a group of fourteen anatomical studies, eleven of which were sold for the Newdegate Settlement at Christie's, London, 6-7 July 1987, lots 57-67 (introduction by Michael Jaffé). Some of these studies are drawn in pen and brown ink, as is the present drawing; in others brown wash has been added; in a few Rubens used black or red chalk only. The drawings were probably originally part of a sketchbook, and Rubens must have made them not only for himself and his pupils, but also with the intention of publishing them as part of an engraved pattern book for other artists. Indeed a number of these drawings, though not the present one, were engraved in reverse by Paulus Pontius. The exact date of execution of these anatomical studies is not known and it is possible that the drawings were produced over an extended period. It is still generally accepted that they must date from the first decade of the seventeenth century (1605-10 for Michael Jaffé, 1600-8 for J.M. Muller, 1600-5 for A.M. Logan and 1606-8 for David Jaffé).
The present drawing was until now only known through two copies. The first, in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, is by Rubens's pupil Willem Panneels (J. Garff and E. de la Fuente Pedersen, Rubens Cantoor. The Drawings of Willem Panneels, Copenhagen, 1988, no. 214, illus.). Panneels made copies in red and black chalk of most of Rubens's anatomical studies while these were kept in the cantoor (the private room in Rubens's house where he kept his drawings, oil sketches, and other valuable objects) and often annotated his drawings in code. The inscription of the copy of the Burchard drawing reads 'desebeenenhebbeick oockalvantcantoorgehaelt endesijngoet vanomtreck' ('These legs I have also taken from the cantoor, and the outlines are good'). The second copy, now in the Albertina, Vienna, in the same technique as the present drawing, has been attributed in the past to Rubens himself (Die Rubenszeichnungen der Albertina, exhib. cat., Vienna, Albertina, 1977, no. 2). It lacks most of the indications of the floor visible in the present sheet and in Panneels's copy, and is devoid of all the pentimenti observable in the Burchard drawing.
Ludwig Burchard owned another drawing from the same group of anatomical studies, Three nudes drawn in black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, sold Christie's, London, 6 July 1999, lot 223. Interestingly and surprisingly, given his habit of doing the opposite, Burchard never published or made accessible to other scholars these two studies of Ecorchés.
The present drawing was until now only known through two copies. The first, in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, is by Rubens's pupil Willem Panneels (J. Garff and E. de la Fuente Pedersen, Rubens Cantoor. The Drawings of Willem Panneels, Copenhagen, 1988, no. 214, illus.). Panneels made copies in red and black chalk of most of Rubens's anatomical studies while these were kept in the cantoor (the private room in Rubens's house where he kept his drawings, oil sketches, and other valuable objects) and often annotated his drawings in code. The inscription of the copy of the Burchard drawing reads 'desebeenenhebbeick oockalvantcantoorgehaelt endesijngoet vanomtreck' ('These legs I have also taken from the cantoor, and the outlines are good'). The second copy, now in the Albertina, Vienna, in the same technique as the present drawing, has been attributed in the past to Rubens himself (Die Rubenszeichnungen der Albertina, exhib. cat., Vienna, Albertina, 1977, no. 2). It lacks most of the indications of the floor visible in the present sheet and in Panneels's copy, and is devoid of all the pentimenti observable in the Burchard drawing.
Ludwig Burchard owned another drawing from the same group of anatomical studies, Three nudes drawn in black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, sold Christie's, London, 6 July 1999, lot 223. Interestingly and surprisingly, given his habit of doing the opposite, Burchard never published or made accessible to other scholars these two studies of Ecorchés.