Peter Paul Rubens 1577-1640: The Drawings: a Catalogue Raisonne (Pictura Nova)

The idea to prepare a catalogue of all the drawings by Peter Paul Rubens goes back to the 1970s, when Professors R.-A. d'Hulst and E. Haverkamp-Begemann decided to join forces in this endeavor. The drawings would be assembled chronologically rather than by themes as was the goal in the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard series. My task was to begin gathering the necessary information und build up the catalogue. The project has now come to completion and will be published in the Pictura Nova series as volume XX. Envisioned are three separate volumes divided chronologically. All the drawings and corresponding paintings or oil sketches will be reproduced in color. Volume I begins with the copies by the thirteen-year old Rubens drawn in Antwerp, c. 1590, until the end of his sojourn in Italy as a twenty-three year old in October 1608, when he returns to Antwerp. Of the many copies after the Antique only the Rubens drawings that are still known will be discussed. For the lost ones the CRLB volume by Marjon van der Meulen Schregardus of 1994 should be consulted. Volume II discusses Rubens's major Antwerp altarpieces of 1610-14, the Costume Book, the Title-pages, Portraits and Hunts, and ends with the decorations for the Antwerp Jesuit church St. Charles Borromaeus in 1620. Volume III starts with the Medici cycle, the Gem book, Landscapes and ends with Rubens's large portrait with Helena Fourment and their young child, the Kermesse and the Garden of Love. Volume IV will include Addenda, Indices, and the sizeable number of rejected attributions to Rubens. Not included will be the retouched drawings that were so thoroughly discussed by Kristin Lohse Belkin in her Corpus Rubenianum volumes in 2009 and by Jeremy Wood in his Corpus Rubenianum volumes in 2010-11. Rubens's Theoretical Notebook, destroyed in a fire in 1720, will only be discussed briefly with regard to the few sheets that have survived. The subject is being discussed fully in a separate Corpus volume by Arnout Balis. The present catalogue raisonne is to be understood as an overview of Rubens's drawings that is very much indebted to the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard volumes and complements them. The present publication also owes much to the two earlier catalogues on Rubens's drawings by Ludwig Burchard and Roger-A. d'Hulst (1956 and 1963) and by Julius S. Held (1959 and 1986). Further valuable additions to the knowledge of Rubens as a draftsman were published by Justus Muller Hofstede and Michael Jaffe.