The Capture of Samson

1609–10

Peter Paul Rubens
Flemish, 1577-1640

This panel, made as a sketch for a larger painting com- missioned by the mayor of Antwerp, Nicolas Rockox, demonstrates the influence of the ancient and modern art Peter Paul Rubens studied in Italy. The subject comes from a story in the Hebrew Bible in which the mighty Samson awakes to find that his lover, Delilah, has cut off his hair, the source of his strength. Rubens drew from ancient Roman sculpture for Samson’s contorted pose as he is captured by soldiers, while the strong contrast of light and dark recalls the work of 16th-century Italian painter Tintoretto—for example, Tarquin and Lucretia.

Status: On View, Gallery 208
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens
Title: The Capture of Samson
Origin: Flanders
Date: 1609–1610
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 19 3/4 × 26 1/8 in. (50.4 × 66.4 cm)
Credit Line: Robert A. Waller Memorial Fund
Reference Number: 1923.551
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The Arundel Club for the Publication of Reproduction of Works of Art in Private Collections and Elsewhere (London, 1914), n. p., no. 14, ill.
R[ose] M[ary] F[ischkin], “An Early Sketch by Van Dyck,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 18 (1924), pp. 35-37, ill.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago, 1925), p. 135, no. 25.
L. Burchard, “Skizzen des jungen Rubens,” Sitzungs-Berichte der Kunstgeschichtlichen Gesellschaft Berlin (October 1926/May 1927), pp 3, 4, no. 20.
E. Tietze-Conrat, “Van Dyck’s Samson and Delilah,” Burlington Magazine 61 (1932), p. 246, pl. B.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago, 1932), p. 152.
L[udwig] Burchard in Gustav Glück, Rubens, Van Dyck und ihr Kreis, ed. L. Burchard and Robert Eigenberger (Vienna, 1933), p. 395.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1935), p. 23.
Hans Tietze, Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika (Vienna, 1935), p. 335, no. 154, ill.
Ella S. Siple, “Art in America—The Rubens Exhibition at Detroit,” Burlington Magazine 68 (1936), p. 244.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1941), p. 29.
Hans Gerhard Evers, Rubens und sein Werk: Neue Forschungen (Brussels, 1943), pp. 162, 163, 165, fig. 66.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1945), p. 31.
W. R. Valentiner, “Rubens Paintings in America,” Art Quarterly, 9 (1946), p. 156, no. 18.
Jan-Albert Goris and Julius S. Held, Rubens in America (New York, 1947), p. 31, no. 38, pls. 43, 44.
Frits Lugt, Musée du Louvre. Inventaire général des dessins des écoles du nord. École flamande, vol. 1 (Paris, 1949), p. 56, under no. 603.
Horst Gerson, notes added to Recollections of Rubens by Jacob Burckhardt (London, 1950), pp. 176-76 n. 89.
David Rosen and Julius S. Held, “A Rubens Discovery in Chicago,” The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 13-14 (1950-1951), pp. 77-91, figs. 1-6, 9 and 12.
Erik Larsen, P. P. Rubens with a Complete Catalogue of his Works in America (Antwerp, 1952), p. 215, no. 13.
Horst Vey, “Van-Dyck-Studien,” PhD. dissertation, Universität Köln, 1955, pp. 43, 51-55, 57-58.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1956), p. 29.
Julius S. Held, Rubens: Selected Drawings with an Introduction and Critical Catalogue, vol. 1 (London, 1959), pp. 68, 103-104, under nos. 25 and 26.
H. Gerson and E. H. ter Kuile, Art and Architecture in Belgium 1600-1800 (Harmondsworth, 1960), pp. 79, 184 n. 43.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago. A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), p. 407.
Leo van Puyvelde, Rubens (Paris and Brussels, 1964), p. 116.
John Rupert Martin, The Ceiling Paintings of the Jesuit Church in Antwerp. Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Part I (Brussels and London, 1968), p. 154, under no. 29.
J[ohn] M[axon], “A Great New Painting by Rubens,” Calendar of the Art Institute of Chicago 62, 1 (1968), pp. 2-3, ill.
Madlyn Kahr, “Delilah,” Art Bulletin 54 (1972), pp. 292-96, fig. 16.
John D. Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America (New York, 1979), p. 242.
Tilmann Buddensieg, “Simson und Dalila von Peter Paul Rubens” in Festschrift für Otto von Simson zum 65. Geburtstag (Berlin, 1977), pp. 332-34, 343-4, 345 n. 23, fig. 5.
Julius S. Held, The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens. A Critical Catalogue (Princeton, N. J., 1980), pp. 9, 10, 432, 433-34, 447, 452-53, no. 313, fig. 53, pl. 310.
Christopher Brown, Acquisition in Focus. Rubens “Samson and Delilah”, exh. cat., National Gallery, London, 1983, pp. 8-10, fig. 3.
Wolfgang Prohaska, entry for Anthony van Dyck, Samson and Delilah in Flandria extra Muros. La peinture flamande au Kunsthistorisches Museum de Vienne, ed. Arnout Balis (Antwerp, 1987), p. 184.
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Ivan Gaskell, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. Seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish Painting (London, 1990), p. 486-87, fig. 1.
Hans Devisscher, Peter Paul Rubens “Aanbidding der koningen”, Palet series (Bloemendaal, 1992), pp. 60-63, 107, figs. 28 and 29.
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Walter Liedtke, “Rubens, His Patrons, and Style” in Rembrandt, Rubens, and the Art of their Time: Recent Perspectives, ed. Roland E. Fleischer and Susan Clare Scott, Papers in Art History from The Pennsylvania State University, vol. 11 (University Park, Pennsylvania, 1997), p. 127.
H[ans] V[lieghe] in Van Dyck 1599-1641, exh. cat., Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp and Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1999, p. 222, under no. 58.
Richard R. Brettell, Impressionism: Painting Quickly in France, 1860-1890, exh. cat. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 2000, pp. 30-31, fig. 7.
Yvonne Bleyerveld, Hoe bedriechlijck dat die vrouwen zijn. Vrowenlisten in de beeldende kunst in de Nederlanden circa 1350-1650, Leiden, 2000, pp. 286, 291 n. 85.
Horst Vey in Susan Barnes et al., Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings (New Haven and London, 2004), p. 247, under no. III.1.
Alejandro Vergara, “The Adoration of the Magi. A case study in Rubens’ creativity” in Rubens: The Adoration of the Magi, exh. cat., Museo Nacional de Prado, Madrid, 2004, pp. 56-60, 62, 66, 81, fig. 1 (x-radiograph).
David Jaffé et al., Rubens: A Master in the Making, exh. cat., National Gallery, London, 2005, pp. 160-61, 166, no. 73, ill.
Renate Prochno, Konkurrenz und ihre Gesichter in der Kunst. Wettbewerb, Kreativität und ihre Wirkungen (Berlin, 2006), pp. 149-51, fig. 62.
Leonard J. Slatkes and Wayne Franits, The Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen 1588-1629: Catalogue Raisonné (Philadelphia, 2007), p. 14 n. 60.
Samson and Delilah: A Rubens Painting Returns, exh. cat. (Milan: Skira, 2007), 71, 91 cat. 4.
David Jaffé, “Ruben’s Samson an Delilah, an Antwerp Chimney Piece in Context,” in Samson and Delilah: A Rubens Painting Returns, exh. cat. (Milan: Skira, 2007), 12 fig. 2.
Friso Lammertse and Alejandro Vergara, Rubens: Painter of Sketches, Exh. cat. (Museo Nacional Del Prado/Museum Boijmans van Beuningen), 68-69, cat. 6
Sacha Suda and Kirk Nickel, eds., Early Rubens, exh. cat. (New York: DelMonico Books, Prestel, 2019), 162 (color ill.), 163.

Detroit Institute of Arts, Eighth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters. Paintings by Anthony van Dyck, April 3 - April 20, 1929, no. 10, as Van Dyck.
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress. Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1 – November 1, 1933, no. 77.
Detroit Institute of Arts, An Exhibition of Sixty Paintings and some Drawings by Peter Paul Rubens, February 13 – March 15, 1936, no. 37.
Cincinnati, Cincinnati Art Museum, Nicolas Poussin, Peter Paul Rubens, 5 February – 8 March, 1948, no. 1.
New York, Wildenstein, A Loan Exhibition of Rubens, February 20 –March 31, 1951, no. 3.
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans, Olieverfschetsen van Rubens, 1953, no. 6.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fogg Art Museum, January 14 – February 29, 1956 and New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, March 20 – April 28, 1956, Drawings and Oil Sketches by P. P. Rubens from American Collections, no. 28.
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, September 4 – November 22, 1992, Von Bruegel bis Rubens. Das goldene Jahrhundert der flämische Malerei, cat. 44.4; Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, December 12, 1992 – March 8, 1993; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, April 2– June 20, 1993.
Cincinnati, Cincinnati Art Museum, Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens, 11 June 2005 – 11 September 2005, no. 3.
London, National Gallery, Rubens: A Master in the Making, 26 October 2005 – 15 January 2006, no. 73.
Antwerp, Rockexhuis, Samson and Delilah: A Ruben Painting Returns, November 16, 2007–February 10, 2008, cat. 4;Vienna, Liechtenstein Museum, February 29 – May 25, 2008.
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, Rubens: Painter of Sketches, April 9– August 5, 2018, cat. 6; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beunigen, September 9, 2018 – January 13, 2019.
San Francisco, Legion of Honor Museum, Early Rubens, April 6 - September 8, 2019, no cat. no.; Ontario, Art Gallery of Ontario, October 12, 2019 - January 5, 2020.

Probably in the collection of the artist, Antwerp, until his death in 1640 and then included in a large lot of oil sketches in his estate sale, 1642 [Jeffrey M. Muller, “Oil-Sketches in Rubens’s Collection,” Burlington Magazine 117 (1975), pp. 374-75, and Held 1980, p. 11, argue that the oil sketches were disposed of in this way]. Frank T. Sabin Gallery, London, by 1914 (Arundel Club 1914, no. 14); sold by Sabin to the Art Institute, November 1923 as by Van Dyck, with W.R. Valentiner as agent (according to a letter of August 1, 1923 from Valentiner to Robert Harshe in Art Institute archives and receipt from Sabin dated November 5, 1923, copies in curatorial file].

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