Provenance
Probably in the collection of Susanna Willemsens [d. 1657], Antwerp.[1] (possibly General Gansell sale, Christie's, London, 25 February 1775, no. 81 [bought in for £67]).[2] James Du Pre Alexander, 3th earl of Caledon [1812-1855], London, before 1857;[3] by inheritance to his son, James Alexander, 4th earl of Caledon [1846-1898], London; by inheritance to his son, Eric James Desmond Alexander, 5th earl of Caledon [1885-1968], London; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 9 June 1939, no. 24, as by A.J. van Diepenbeck); Mrs. Sanderson, London; S. [Mrs. Gustave] Delbanco, London, by 1954;[4] Gustave Delbanco, London; purchased 5 January 1990 through (Ellin Mitchell, New York) by NGA.
[1] Listed as "Eenen Phaeton van Rubens, op doeck" in the inventory of Willemsens collection made in Antwerp on July 6, 1657. See Jean Denucé, _The Antwerp art-galleries; inventories of the art collections in Antwerp in the 16th and 17th centuries_, Antwerp, 1932: 197.
[2] Algernon Graves, _Art Sales from Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century (Mostly Old Master and Early English Pictures)_, 3 vols., London, 1918-1921: 3(1921):109; Michael Jaffé, "Rubens in Italy: Rediscovered Works," _The Burlington Magazome_ 100 (December 1958): 416.
[3] Gustav-Friedrich Waagen (_Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of more than Forty Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Mss., &c.&c._, [Forming a supplemental volume to the Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols.], London, 1857: 152), considered the painting to be a copy after Rubens.
[4] According to Jaffé 1958, 415 note 11.
Accession Number
1990.1.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 98.4 x 131.2 cm (38 3/4 x 51 5/8 in.) | framed: 125.4 x 159.4 x 5.7 cm (49 3/8 x 62 3/4 x 2 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Patrons' Permanent Fund
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Canvas Flemish
Background & Context
Background Story
The Fall of Phaeton from c. 1604-08 depicts the mythological episode in which Phaeton, son of Apollo, loses control of his father's sun chariot and is struck down by Zeus with a thunderbolt—a subject that Rubens painted in the dynamically composed, muscular manner that he developed during his Italian years (1600-08). The c. 1604-08 date places this in Rubens's Italian period, when he was absorbing the lessons of Italian art that would transform his style. The painting exists in two versions, both showing the dramatic moment when Zeus's thunderbolt sends Phaeton tumbling from the sky, with the horses of the sun chariot rearing and the earth below catching fire.
Cultural Impact
The Fall of Phaeton is important in Rubens's early development because it demonstrates the dynamically composed, muscular manner that he developed during his Italian years and would bring to Northern Baroque painting. The mythological subject allowed Rubens to exercise his talent for dynamic composition and dramatic figure painting in a format that Italian art had developed over centuries, and the painting shows Rubens absorbing the lessons of Michelangelo, Titian, and the Italian Baroque that would make him the dominant painter of Northern Europe.
Why It Matters
The Fall of Phaeton is Rubens's Italian dynamism: Phaeton struck down by Zeus's thunderbolt as the sun chariot careens out of control, rendered in the dynamically composed, muscular manner that Rubens developed during his Italian years. The c. 1604-08 painting shows Rubens absorbing Michelangelo, Titian, and the Italian Baroque, preparing to transform Northern European painting.
