SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS | PORTRAIT OF A LADY, THREE-QUARTER LENGTH, WEARING AN ELABORATE BLACK DRESS AND CLOAK, BEFORE A RED DRAPE AND A DISTANT LANDSCAPE

Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar (1797–1864)

His deceased sale, London, Christie's, 1 June 1878, lot 93, for 1120 Guineas to Butler

Charles Butler, 3 Connaught Place, London

Thence by descent until sold, Leyburn, Tennants, 18 November 2017, lot 67

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Possibly the painting noted in Rubens' posthumous inventory, Specification des peintures trouvee dans la maison mortuaire de Rubens, no. 122 (‘un pourtrait d'une Damoiselle ayant les mains l'une sur l'autre’)

M. Rooses, L’Œuvre de P. P. Rubens , vol. 4, Antwerp 1890, p. 298, no. 1103 (as Rubens, ‘entirely by the hand of the master’)

A. Rosenberg (ed.), P. P. Rubens: des Meisters Gemälde in 551 Abbildungen. Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben 5, Leipzig/Stuttgart 1905, pp. 289, 479 (as Rubens)

G. Gluck, ‘Review of Klassiker der Kunst ed. Rosenberg’, in Kunstgeschichtliche Anzeigen, II, 1905, pp. 60–61, no. 289 (from a photograph, as doubtful)

E. Verhaeren, Rubens, Leipzig 1913, p. 81, no. 55 (as Rubens)

R. Oldenbourg (ed.), P. P. Rubens, Des Meisters Gemälde. Klassiker der Kunst., 4th ed., Stuttgart 1921, p. 453 (from a photograph, as a presumed copy after a putative lost original)

G. Glück, Rubens, Van Dyck und ihr Kreis, Vienna 1933, p. 164

To be included in the fortchcoming volume of the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard: H. Vlieghe in K. Van der Stighelen, Portraits. III. Unidentified Sitters, expected early 2021 (See discussion below, underneath fig. 4)

London, Royal Academy, 1880, no. 81 (as Rubens, ‘The Painter’s Wife’)

London, Royal Academy, 1894, no. 67 (as Rubens, ‘Said to be the Sister of the Painter’s Wife’)

London, New Gallery, Winter Exhibition, 1899–1900 (as Rubens)

London, Royal Academy, 1902 (as Rubens)