Study for "The Bear Hunt" (for the Alcázar, Madrid)
Medium
oil on wood
Dimensions
unframed: 26 × 53.7 cm · framed: 70.5 × 40.6 × 7.6 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Accession Number
1983.69
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
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 ske...