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The Reconciliation of King Henry III and Henry of Navarre
16289 3/8 x 7 5/8 in. (23.8 x 19.4 cm)
Peter Paul Rubens
Flanders (1577 - 1640)
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on oak panel
Credit Line:
Marion Stratton Gould Fund
Accession Number:
1944.24
Location: Currently on view
In 1622 Marie de' Medici commissioned from the internationally famous painter Rubens two series of enormous paintings to decorate the Luxembourg Palace in Paris, where she then lived. The first series, now in the Louvre, told her own life story. The second was to tell the life of her husband Henry IV, but was never completed, and most of the scenes are known only from painted sketches like this one. The event here is a 1589 meeting between King Henry III of France (Catherine de' Medici's youngest son) and King Henry of Navarre, the future King Henry IV of France.
Henry III had no heirs, and a rival faction of French nobles who wanted to usurp his throne had taken over Paris. His cousin Henry of Navarre, although Protestant and excommunicated by the Pope, was the rightful heir. At the meeting portrayed here, Henry III promised to declare Henry of Navarre his heir, if the famous warrior king would help him to recapture Paris. To symbolize the agreement, Rubens shows the two kings clasping hands around the royal French scepter and a figure behind them holding an insignia of two clasped hands. A few months later, Henry III was stabbed by an assassin. On his deathbed, he made Henry IV promise to convert to Catholicism. Henry IV's famous comment was "Paris is well worth a mass" ("Paris vaut vien une messe").
[Gallery label text, 1996]
Henry III had no heirs, and a rival faction of French nobles who wanted to usurp his throne had taken over Paris. His cousin Henry of Navarre, although Protestant and excommunicated by the Pope, was the rightful heir. At the meeting portrayed here, Henry III promised to declare Henry of Navarre his heir, if the famous warrior king would help him to recapture Paris. To symbolize the agreement, Rubens shows the two kings clasping hands around the royal French scepter and a figure behind them holding an insignia of two clasped hands. A few months later, Henry III was stabbed by an assassin. On his deathbed, he made Henry IV promise to convert to Catholicism. Henry IV's famous comment was "Paris is well worth a mass" ("Paris vaut vien une messe").
[Gallery label text, 1996]
Provenance
Francois-Xavier de Burtin (1743-1818), Brussels; his sale, P.-L. Mastraeten, Brussels, July 21, 1819, lot 149 (bought in, per Getty Provenance database); Frank T. Sabin, London (dealer), by 1907; Steinmeyer, Cologne [per Cardon catalogue]; Charles-Léon Cardon (1850-1921), Brussels, by 1910; his sale, Galerie Fievez, June 27-30, 1921, lot 109; Joseph de Winter, Antwerp; his sale, Galerie Georges Giroux, Brussels, March 12, 1928, lot 43; Paul J. Heinemann (1881-1965), New York, ca. 1933; Caesar R. Diorio, New York (dealer); purchased from him by the Gallery in 1944
Keywords
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Additional Images
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- Exposition d'art ancien: l'art belge au XVIIe siècle 6/1/1910 - 11/30/1910
- Rubens 1/1/1914 - 12/31/1914
- An exhibition of sixty paintings and some drawings by Peter Paul Rubens 2/13/1936 - 3/15/1936
- Schetsen van Rubens 8/1/1937 - 9/30/1937
- Rubens 11/24/1942 - 12/19/1942
- A Loan Exhibition of Rubens 2/20/1951 - 3/31/1951
- European Paintings from the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery 1/15/1967 - 9/30/1967
- Rubenism Brown University Department of Art 1/30/1975 - 2/23/1975
- Treasures from Rochester Memorial Art Gallery 4/14/1977 - 5/28/1977
- Rubens & Humanism 4/15/1978 - 5/28/1978
- Peter Paul Rubens: The Oil Sketches 11/15/1989 - 12/30/1989
- Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens 9/17/2004 - 8/28/2005
- Rubens' Triumph - War, Politics, Painting 10/14/2012 - 2/28/2013
- Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and their Contemporaries 10/12/2014 - 4/26/2015
Bibliography
This object has the following bibliographic references:
- Article Scope: Reproduction only. Susan Dodge Peters, ed. Memorial Art Gallery: An Introduction to the Collection. New York, New York: Memorial Art Gallery in association with Hudson Hills Press, 1988.
- Article Title: The Gallery's New Rubens. Article Scope: Article. Memorial Art Gallery. Gallery Notes. Rochester, New York: Memorial Art Gallery, 1935-1995. Volume Number: 10, Issue Number: 2. Issue Date: November-December 1944.
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Rochester Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester Handbook. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1961.
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Denys Sutton. Treasures from Rochester: Exhibited at Wildenstein Galleries, New York, April 14-May 28, 1977: Summary Catalogue. Rochester, New York: Memorial Art Gallery, 1977.
- Brighton-Pittsford Post. Pittsford, NY
- Apollo. London, England: Apollo
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. The Burlington Magazine. London, England: Burlington Magazine Volume Number: 11, Issue Number: 49. Issue Date: April 1907.
- François-Xavier de Burtin. Traité Théorique et Pratique des Connaissances. Valenciennes: Lemaitre, 1864.
- Max Rooses. L'Oeuvre de Rubens. , 1890. Volume Number: III
- Article Scope: Mention. Max Rooses. Rubens. London, England: Duckworth & Co., 1904. Volume Number: II
- Emile Michel. Rubens: his life, his work, and his time . London, England: W. Heinemann, 1899. Volume Number: II
- Article Author: Rooses, Max. Article Title: De Vlaamsche Kunst in de XVIIe Eeuw Tentoongesteld in Het Jubelpaleis Te Brussel. Article Scope: Review. Onze Kunst. Volume Number: XIX Issue Date: January 1911. Page Number: 5-6
- Alfred von Wurzbach. Niederländisches Künstler-Lexikon. Vienna: Halm & Goldmann, 1911.
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Tresor de l'Art Belge au XVII Siècle. Paris, France: G. van Oest & cie., 1912.
- Article Scope: Entry. Jan-Albert Goris and Julius S. Held. Rubens in America. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1947.
- Article Author: Jost, Ingrid. Article Title: Bemerkungen Zur Heinrichsgalerie des P.P. Rubens. Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Ingrid Jost. Netherlands Year-Book for History of Art. , 1964. Page Number: 192, Figure Number: 11
- Article Author: Wehle, Harry B.. Article Title: The Triumph of Henry IV by Rubens. Article Scope: Mention. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art Volume Number: I, Issue Number: 7. Issue Date: March 1943. Page Number: 216
- Article Scope: Reproduction only. Thomas R. Rumsey. Men and Women of the Renaissance and Reformation, 1300-1600. Wellesley Hills, MA: Independent School Press, 1981.
- Article Author: Roy, Kathleen Ann. Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. . Rubenism. Providence, RI: Brown University Department of Art, 1975. Page Number: 13, 42, Figure Number: 8
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. A Loan Exhibition of Rubens: Under the High Patronage of His Excellency Baron Robert Silvercruys, Ambassador of Belgium for the Benefit of The Public Education Association, February 20-March 31, 1951. New York, NY: Wildenstein, 1951.
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), Paintings and Drawings [and] Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Three Oil Sketches. New York, NY: Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, 1989.
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Julius S. Held. The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens: A Critical Catalogue. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980. Volume Number: I
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Rubens & Humanism. Birmingham, AL: Birmingham Museum of Art, 1978.
- Article Author: Hoene, Anne. Article Title: A Balanced Collection. Article Scope: Article and reproduction. Art Gallery Magazine. Ivoryton, CT: Wm. C. Bendig Volume Number: XI, Issue Number: 10. Issue Date: Summer 1968. Page Number: 24
- Peter C. Sutton and Marjorie Wieseman. Drawn by the Brush: Oil Sketches by Peter Paul Rubens. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.
- Article Scope: Mention. Leo van Puyvelde. The Sketches of Rubens. London, England: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd., 1947.
- Article Author: Brown, Christopher. Article Title: Rubens's Coronation of Henri IV. Article Scope: Mention. Katlijne van der Stighelen, ed. Munuscula Amicorum: Contributions on Rubens and his Colleagues in Honour of Hans Vlieghe. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2006. Volume Number: I Page Number: 295
- John D. Morse. Old master paintings in North America: over 3000 masterpieces by 50 great artists . New York, NY: Abbeville Press, 1979.
- Article Scope: Mention and reproduction. Gerhard Finckh, ed. Peter Paul Rubens. Wuppertal, Germany: von der Heydt-museum, 2012.
- Article Scope: Entry and reproduction. Dennis P. Weller. Small Treasures: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, and Their Contemporaries. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2014.
- Article Author: van der Linden, David. Article Title: Memorializing the Wars of Religion in Early 17th-Century French Picture Galleries. Article Scope: Mention and reproduction. Renaissance Quarterly. Volume Number: 70, Issue Number: 1. Issue Date: Spring 2017. Page Number: 156, Figure Number: 8
- Article Scope: Catalogue Raisonné Entry. Ludwig Burchard. Corpus Rubenianum. London, England: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2017. Volume Number: Part XIV (2)
- Seymour Schwartz. The Anatomist, the Barber-Surgeon, and the King. Amherst, New York: Humanity Books, 2015.
- Arnaud Manas. La Galerie Dorée de la Banque de France. Paris, France: Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 2018.
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