£40,000 FOR A RUBENS.
“THE DRUNKEN SILENUS.” The celebrated painting by Reubens, “The Drunken Silenus,” which has belonged for two centuries to the Leichtenstein Gallery, in Vienna, has been sold to an American collector. The price is the comparatively low one of £40,000. This announcement has created some surprise in London. It has always been assumed that the picture by' Rubens known in the inventory of the painter’s effects at his death as No. 170, “ Drunken Silenus,” is in our National Gallery. It was purchased in 1871, when Sir Robert Peel’s entire collection was bought for tlie nation. This Peel picture is now catalogued as “ The Triumph of Silenus,” and is on a canvas 54 inches by 77 i inches. It was commissioned by Van Uffelen, and was later in the collection of Cardinal Richelieu, passing into the collection of Prince Lucien Bonaparte in 1810. Smith, who bought it for Sir Robert Peel, obtained it from the Bonne Maison collection in 1827. Rubens or his assistants treated the theme on more than one occasion.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19290501.2.136
Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 20705, 1 May 1929, Page 15
Word Count
174£40,000 FOR A RUBENS. Otago Daily Times, Issue 20705, 1 May 1929, Page 15
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