Sir Peter Paul Rubens

Possibly Thomas Jodocus Loridon de Ghellinck, Ghent, by 1790;
Possibly his sale, Ghent, Goesin, September 3, 1821, lot 68 (as manner of Rubens) for 40 francs to 'Murphy' with lots 63, 64, 65, 66 and 67;
P.A. Chéramy, Paris, 1908-1913;
Joseph Schnell, Paris, by 1922;
His sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, May 18 -19, 1922, lot 91 (as attributed to Rubens);
Private collection, Belgium;
Anonymous sale, Brussels, Galerie Georges Giroux, March 15, 1926, lot 41 (as depicting Emperor Vespasian and sold with certificates by Wilhelm von Bode and Ludwig Burchard).

Catalogue d'une très-belle et riche collection de Tableaux...qui composent le cabinet de Monsieur T. Loridon de Ghellinck... à Gand, Ghent  circa 1790, p. 20, no. 71;
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans, Olieverfschetsen van Rubens, exhibition catalogue, Rotterdam 1953, p. 69;
M. Jaffé, "Rubens' Roman Emperors," in The Burlington Magazine, June 1971, p. 298 and 300, reproduced;
A.J. Adams, Dutch and Flemish Paintings from New York Private Collections, exhibition catalogue, New York 1988, p. 105, under no. 40;
M. Jaffé, Rubens Catalogo Completo, Milan 1989, p. 298, cat. no. 870, reproduced (erroneously catalogued as with Sedelmeyer, Paris, 1817);
M.E. Wieseman, in Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens, exhibition catalogue, New Haven and London 2004, p. 150. 

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been fairly recently lightly cleaned and varnished. The picture is painted onto two pieces of wood, joined vertically through the right side. This thin join is visible yet not unstable. The panel is flat and has been cradled on the reverse. The face, hair and a good deal of the body is in good condition. In Ruben's oil sketches his tendency to leave areas of the ground color showing is well known and although there may be some very slight abrasion situated on the far left, on the shoulder of the figure and perhaps in his neck, there seems to be a very healthy paint layer throughout the remainder of the head and the bulk of the background. There is some restoration in Vitellius's chest directly, above his shirt, likely deals with some pentimenti or a loss and some further restoration in his chest closer to his chin. In order to present this picture properly, it should be cleaned and retouched in a slightly more accurate fashion. However the condition may be considered to be good, particularly given the fact that the most retouching has yet to be done and even in this case, not a lot would be required.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Untraced since it was last sold in Brussels in 1926, this freely rendered bust of Vitellius is one of a series of small oval portraits on panel by Rubens depicting the Roman emperors, datable to circa 1625.  The present panel together with another five, identified as Julius Caesar (see fig. 1, sold New York, Sotheby's, January 25, 2007, lot 25 for $656,000), Augustus (present location unknown), Tiberius (present location unknown), Vespasian (see fig. 2, now in a private collection) and Titus (present location unknown), all appear to have been together in the distinguished collection of Thomas Loridon de Ghellinck by 1790, and were sold in his sale, Ghent, September 3, 1821 (lots 63, 64, 65, 66 and 67).  Another three works, Galba, Otho, and Nero, from the series have come to light in the last century.¹

In all likelihood the Vitellius and the above mentioned portraits were intended as part of a series of the "Twelve Caesars," the first twelve Roman emperors, whose lives were famously chronicled by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus.  From the Renaissance onwards, series of portraits of the twelve Caesars in all media were enormously popular among princely patrons.  In the sixteenth century, Federico Gonzaga commissioned from Titian one such series for the Ducal Palace in Mantua.  These paintings, completed in 1539, inspired numerous painted copies and were engraved by Aegidius Sadeler circa 1593.²  In the seventeenth century another series, probably commissioned by the Dutch stadholder Maurits of Orange or his successor Frederik Hendrik between circa 1615 – 1625, was a painted set in which a dozen of the most important artists from the northern and southern Netherlands, including Rubens, Cornelis van Haarlem, Abraham Bloemaert, Gerard van Honthorst, Abraham Janssens, Gerard Seghers, and Dirck van Baburen, each contributed a bust-length, life-size portrait of one of the Caesars.³

Although the specific commission for the present Vitellius and related busts is not known, the set may have been inspired, as Michael Jaffé suggests, by Rubens' having met in Paris in the 1620s three eminent antiquarians in the suite of Urban VIII's special legate, Cardinal Francesco Barberini: Girolamo Andreano, Giovanni Doni, and Casiano del Pozzo.⁴  Rubens himself had a keen interest in antique representations of the emperors: he owned a marble bust of the rather corpulent Vitellius as well as one of Julius Caesar, both from the collection of about one hundred antique marbles that the artist acquired from Sir Dudley Carlton in 1618, in exchange for eight paintings and 2,000 guilders.⁵

Rubens painted Vitellius, like Julius Caesar and Vespasian, with the great virtuosity and freedom characteristic of the oil sketches for which he is deservedly so renowned.  In each bust he uses a mainly monochromatic palette, enlivened by the rust-colored pigment of the drapery and by the white accents that highlight the emperors' eyes, flesh, and leaves of the laurel wreaths crowning their heads.

1.  Galba, now lost, was last recorded with a Dr. Bonn, Berlin; Otho is now in the Scunthorpe Museum and Art Gallery; Nero, now lost, was together with Vitellius in both the Schnell and Chéramy Collections, and was last recorded in the 1926 Giroux sale, lot 40, preceding our Vitellius (lot 41).  In the Giroux sale Nero was sold, as was Vitellius, with a certificate from both Wilhelm Bode and Ludwig Burchard, who himself owned the above mentioned Julius Caesar and Vespasian.  It is possible that one or more of these three busts may, indeed, have been included in the Ghellinck collection and that the subject was misidentified.
2.  When the Otho came up for sale in 1967 it was, in fact, catalogued as School of Titian.
3. To this series Rubens contributed a Julius Caesar, now in the Jadgschloss, Grunewald, Berlin.
4.  M. Jaffé, "Rubens' Roman Emperors," in The Burlington Magazine, June 1971, p. 298.
5.  F. Healy, "Rubens as Collector of Antiquities," in A House of Art. Rubens as Collector, Antwerp 2004, p. 260 and 261.