Frans Snyders, studio of
Gutting a Roebuck
Oil on canvas (relined). 118 x 179 cm.
This depiction of a game seller disemboweling a roebuck was likely once housed in the collection of the Prince Elector of Cologne Clemens August, where a corresponding painting is described in two inventory lists of Poppelsdorf Castle from 1761, described as a joint work by Rubens and Snyder (Main State Archives Düsseldorf, Kurköln II, nos. 258 and 368). Hella Robbels has classified the picture as a workshop copy (H. Robels, op. cit., no. 44a). The original piece is in the Lower Saxon State Gallery, Hanover (inv. no. State Gallery PAM 871). According to Robels, a composition study in the British Museum London (Robels, Z 10) could also have served as a model for the studio repetition.
Provenance
Possibly from the collection of Cologne Prince Elector Clemens August. - Purchased from his estate auction in 1764 by H. Broggia for 250 Rhenish thalers (as a joint work between Snyders and Rubens). - Sotheby's, London, December 12, 1979, lot 222. - Private collection, Greven.
Literature
E. Renard: Clemens August, Kurfürst von Köln, Bielefeld, Leipzig 1927, S. 93-4. - H. Vey: Die Gemälde des Kurfürsten Clemens August, in: Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 25, 1963, p. 212, no. 592, p. 220. - H. Robels: Frans Snyders, Munich 1989, p. 209, no. 44a.