The United Kingdom has blocked the release of an important oil sketch by Pieter Paul Rubens that is in danger of leaving the country. The work was valued at 8.4 million pounds (about 9.8 million euros), and the blocking measure will give a U.K. gallery or institution time to acquire the oil sketch for the nation. In the United Kingdom, in fact, the law(here how it works) is that the state can block the release of an object if it is deemed to be of high interest: a period of time is then allowed (usually between four and nine months) in which UK institutions can raise funds to purchase the object at the appraisal price. After that, if there are no proposals to purchase, the work is usually granted a certificate of free circulation.
The work in question depicts a mythological episode, Cimone falling in love with Efigenia, told in one of the novellae in Boccaccio’s Decameron . According to the UK, it is an extraordinary example of an oil sketch by Rubens. This sketch has a strong connection to Britain, as George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628), admired Rubens’ artistic talent and exhibited works in his York House. These include the finished painting of Cymon and Epigenia, of which the oil sketch is a preparatory work. The painting represents a synthesis of Rubens’ working methods at a relatively early stage of his career. If preserved for the nation by a cultural institution, it would strengthen the representation of such works in the United Kingdom.
Arts Minister Sir Chris Bryant said, “This work is the perfect example of Rubens’ artistic talent and gives us a deeper insight into 17th-century Flemish art. I hope that a UK museum will be able to save it so that the public can admire it for future generations.”
The minister’s decision to block the work’s release follows the opinion of the Review Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA). The Committee made its recommendation on the basis that the painting meets the second and third Waverley criteria (extraordinary aesthetic importance and extraordinary significance to scholarship, particularly the study of Rubens’ preparatory studies and sketches and their influence, as well as the treatment of the female nude in art).
Committee member Mark Hallett said, "This painting gives us an opportunity to appreciate the creative process of a great artist in full bloom. Created on panel as the main sketch for a monumental oil painting now on display at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Cimone falling in love with Efigenia is entirely Rubens’ own work, rather than-as in the case of the final painting-a work that includes the contribution of his studio assistants. In the sketch, we see Rubens exploring the artistic possibilities of a scene charged with ethics and eroticism, drawn from early Renaissance literature, and experimenting with established pictorial conventions of the female nude. The more one observes and reflects on this painting, the more complex and challenging it becomes-the hallmark of all truly significant works of art. For these reasons, Cimone falling in love with Efigenia demands to find a permanent home in the United Kingdom, where it can be admired for decades to come."
The decision on the export license application for the painting will be deferred for a period ending on and including September 15, 2025. At the end of the first deferral period, the current owners of the sketch will have 15 working days to consider possible offers to purchase the painting at the recommended price of £8,440,000. The second deferral period will begin following the signing of an Option Agreement and will last for six months.
The painting has a long and established provenance. The first possessor was probably the painter and merchant Jeremias Wildens (1621-1653), son of Jan Wildens (1586-1653), an important painter who collaborated with Rubens on the Vienna picture in which he painted the landscape. He is mentioned in the inventory of Jeremias Wildens’s estate drawn up on January 30, 1653, and January 11, 1654, with the number 528 and caption “Eenenen Thimon met Naeckte vrouwkens van Rubbens” (A Thimon [Cimon] with Naked Women by Rubens). The work is then attested in the UK in 1819, when it was sold in an auction by Christie’s, for the sum of 26.5 pounds at the time. It then passed to William Noel-Hill, third Baron Berwick (1773-1842), who in turn sold it at Christie’s (albeit as a Rubens school painting: it was purchased for 17 guineas), then passed to Sir Matthew Wilson, first Baronet of Eshton Hall (1802-1891), and finally it passed through private collections until it came to its present owners who purchased it last year.
|
|
| UK blocks the exit from the country of an important Rubens sketch |
Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.
