Study for "The Bear Hunt" (for the Alcázar, Madrid) (c. 1639): Art, History and Details

Study for "The Bear Hunt" (for the Alcázar, Madrid) (c. 1639) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

On June 22, 1639, King Philip IV of Spain received a letter from his younger brother Ferdinand (1609–1641). The letter explained that the artist Peter Paul Rubens had recently completed all of the sketches for a series of paintings that were to hang in the halls of the Alcázar Palace in Madrid. Bear Hunt is one of seven surviving studies out of the original eighteen. In this scene, a bear attacks a hunter and a companion comes to his aide The others work to stave off a second angry bear. The sketch was completed in the last year Rubens's life, and the paintings for the series were never completed.

Object facts

• Title: Study for "The Bear Hunt" (for the Alcázar, Madrid)
• Date: c. 1639
• Creator attribution: Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640)
• Culture: Flanders
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on wood
• Dimensions: Framed: 70.5 x 40.6 x 7.6 cm (27 3/4 x 16 x 3 in.); Unframed: 26 x 53.7 cm (10 1/4 x 21 1/8 in.)
• Collection: P - Netherlandish-Flemish
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1983.69

A detail from the museum

With just a few quick brushstrokes, Rubens evokes the energy and drama of a ferocious hunt.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Larsen, Erik. P.P. Rubens. With a Complete Catalogue of his Works in America. Antwerp: De Sikkel, 1952.
• Bordley, Rogers. Rubens ou Snyders? Paris: La Nef de Paris, 1956.
• The Burlington Magazine 65 (1973)

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.