Allegory of Saint George and the dragon

by the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens

Workshop of Peter Paul RUBENS (Siegen, 1577 - Antwerp, 1640)

Allegory of Saint George and the dragon.

Oil on canvas.

Height 168 cm, Width 248 cm.
(Ancient repairs).

Based on a painting housed in the Royal Collections at Windsor Castle.

Export certificate available.

Provenance, by Élisabeth Royer :

- Aguado Collection, Marquis de Las Marismas
- Aguado Hôtel, Paris, 6, rue Grange-Batelière, Sale of the Aguado collection, after the owner’s passing, in his own dwellings, March 20 to 28, 1843, by Bonnefons de Lavialle and Benou, auctioneers, lot n°375, under the name « Gozon, vainqueur du dragon de l’Île de Rhodes » (168 x 235 cm), sold for 1,520 francs
- GAP
- Offered to Dr Germain Sée (1818-1896), physician to Emperor Napoléon III, Sultan Mourad in Constantinople, and Victor Hugo, 45 bd Malesherbes, Paris
- By inheritance, Pierre Sée Collection (1880-1937), 8, bd Emile Augier, Paris
- Stolen by the Nazis from Mrs. Pierre Sée, née Hélène Cécile Alexine Anspach (1887-1976) on May 8, 1944
- Seized by the Möbel-Aktion, n° MA-B 1304. Brought to the Jeu de Paume in May 1944, Kiste Nr. MA-B 92 (due to the size of the painting, it probably was the only one contained in that box, which was brought to the Jeu de Paume between April and May 1944)
- Transfered to Nikolsburg (room 56)
- Transfered to Kögl (n°635) and photographed on Februray 19, 1945
- Entered into the Munich Central Collecting Point, n° 22303, under the title « King Charles 1st, St Georg and St. Agnes in a landscape » (169 x 249 cm), repatriated to France on January 7, 1947
- Turned over to Mrs. Pierre Sée, then living at her brother Robert Anspach’s home (1893-1971) 3, bd Emile Augier, Paris on May 23, 1950
- Maurice Jose Y Vieria Collection, 3, bd Emile Augier Paris 16e, then 12 place Vendôme, Paris Ist
- Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 20, 1951, « Tableaux anciens et modernes », Mr. Maurice Rheims auctioneer, Mr. Haro expert, lot n°55 titled « The Presentation » (169 x 249 cm)
- Mrs. Adèle Reyman, Hungarian refugee, purchased at abovementioned auction for 21,000 francs
- Stolen from Adèle Reyman, who pressed charges in November 1967
- Painting reappeared on February 1968 (Le Figaro dated Feb. 1, 1968, « Un Rubens inconnu découvert à Paris »; in 1968, Hans Wendland was asked to authenticate the painting)
- Hôtel Meurice, Alexandre Ananoff Expert, Paris, December 1, 1976, lot titled « Saint George » sold for 240,000 francs (archives of the Louvre Museum)
- Galerie Alexander, ca. 1980
- Private Collection, purchased by the abovementioned,
- By inheritance, Philippe Méaille.

Bibliography:

- Wolfgang Adler, Corpus Rubenianium Ludgwig Burchard Part XVIII, Landscapes and hunting scenes, Oxford University Press, New York, 1982. Painting mentioned on p.119, n°35.

A GIFT FROM NAPOLEON III STOLEN BY THE NAZIS: RUBENS’ TRIBUTE TO ENGLAND ESCAPES THE FIRE SET BY THE RED ARMY
by Aymeric Rouillac

Mandated by Philip IV of Spain to bring peace between the Spanish and English kingdoms, Rubens stayed in London in 1629-1630. He fell in love with the English countryside and wrote in the middle of the summer: "This island seems like a sight worthy of every gentleman’s interest, not only for the beauty of its scenery and the charm of the nation itself, but also for the great works of art and collections belonging to its court." Famous for his portraits and historical scenes, Rubens developed a talent for landscape painting in the last fifteen years of his life and completely reinvented the genre with panoramic views where space and clouds are streaked with vibrant lights. He painted a view of the Thames as seen from his residence at York House on which various London monuments can be seen in the distance. Before he left England, King Charles I knighted him and offered him a lavish diamond bejeweled sword. Back in Antwerp, the painter enlarged his painting to turn it into a "Tribute to England", which he sent to the British king through Ambassador Endymion Porter in 1634 or 1635. In this painting, the king is portrayed as Saint George the dragon slayer who brought back civil peace. Only three versions of this painting, nowadays kept at Windsor Castle, have been identified over the centuries in the Corpus Rubenianum. Ours is the only one that has been located to this day. Ironically, one of these paintings was acquired by the Earl of Lincoln, an opponent to Charles I whose political stance led to his downfall and the dispersal of his collection. The original painting was sold at the time of the Commonwealth and the Cromwell dictatorship and reacquired by the British Crown in 1814.


Our painting is the largest of those created by Rubens’ workshop under the master's control. It is the only one that has been enlarged, with an additional twenty centimeters wide strip of canvas on its right hand side. It reappeared in 1843 in Paris during the sale of the collection of Alexandre Aguado, Marquis of Las Marismas (1784-1842), which also included Raphael’s Madonna. Alexandre Aguado, a banker who negotiated loans from Spain, was also Rossini’s benefactor and owner of the Château Margaux estate. Improperly titled Gozon, the dragon slayer of the Island of Rhodes, our painting was sold among five paintings by Rubens, one of which was bought by the civil list of King Louis-Philippe. It was then offered to Dr Germain Sée (1818-1896), Napoleon III’s personal physician who secretly examined the emperor and informed him of the fatal disease of which he suffered. Dr Sée’s fame brought him to the bedside of eminent people of the time, from Sultan Murad to Victor Hugo. The Marquis of las Marismas’ widow, who was a lady-in-waiting to Empress Eugenie, may have influenced the choice of this allegory as a gift to the Tuileries Palace’s beloved doctor from an Anglophile king, friend of Queen Victoria.


The painting was brutally stolen from Dr Sée’s grandchildren on May 8, 1944 during the Nazis’s “Möbel-Aktion” plunder, and sent to the Jeu de Paume. However, it was not sold on the Parisian art market but sent to the castle of Nikolsburg in southern Moravia. This was the anteroom to the salt mines in Altaussee serving as a repository for art stolen by the Nazis and hidden by Hitler and Göring. Having failed to invade England, the Nazi leaders seized its allegory by Rubens. In February 1945, the painting was then sent to the castle of Kögl, Germany. A few weeks later, it miraculously escaped the fire which gutted the castle of Nikolsburg following fights with the Red Army. Rediscovered at the end of WWII and saved by the Monument Men’s section among five millions of other works of art, it was repatriated to France in January 1947 and returned to the Sée family in 1950.


Sold at auction at Hôtel Drouot by Mr. Rheims, auctioneer, the following year under the name “The Presentation”, it was acquired by Adèle Reymann, a Hungarian refugee, then stolen from her in 1967. Its recovery prompted the Figaro newspaper to write on its February 1, 1968 headlines "An unknown Rubens discovered in Paris". Art expert Hans Wendland suggested that this painting was the original and that that of the Queen of England was a copy! More cautiously, Alexandre Ananoff presented it during its 1976 sale at the Hôtel Meurice under the fitting name of “Saint George” and described it as a work by “Rubens and his workshop” with multiple interventions by Rubens himself. It was acquired by a Parisian gallery, then resold to an art lover whose descendants are now putting it up for auction once more.


It appears that the tumultuous itinerary of this painting, which was auctioned off three times under three different names within the span of two centuries, was stolen twice in less than thirty years - including once by the Nazis - and escaped a fire caused by the Red Army, is like the allegorical image of the country in honor of which it was painted: unsinkable!

• Download the HD picture
• Download the Figaro article, 1 February 1968