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Mulay Ahmad
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640)
about 1609
Medium/Technique
Oil on panel
Dimensions
99.7 x 71.5 cm (39 1/4 x 28 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
M. Theresa B. Hopkins Fund
Accession Number40.2
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
This portrait of Mulay Ahmad, the ruler of Tunis, is a rare 17th-century portrayal of an African sovereign. But it’s not a portrait from life. Rubens based the painting on an earlier work by Jan Vermeyen, who traveled to North Africa in 1535 on a military campaign led by the Holy Roman Emperor. Rubens clearly valued this painting, for he kept it his entire life. He used it repeatedly as the model for the African king in paintings of the three kings who travel to Bethlehem to adore the infant Jesus. Rubens’s insistence on an authentic depiction of an African monarch is in keeping with the period’s impulse to discover, describe, and represent the wider world.
ProvenanceUntil 1640, the artist [see note 1]. Jacques Jean de Raedt (b. 1757 - d. 1838), Mechelen, Belgium [see note 2]. William Waldegrave (b. 1753 - d. 1825), 1st Baron Radstock, Longhill Castle, Wiltshire and Coleshill, Berkshire, England; May 12, 1826, posthumous Radstock sale, Christie's, London, lot 23, to Christianus Johannes Nieuwenhuys (b. 1799 - d. 1883), Amsterdam, for £136.10; May 11, 1833, Nieuwenhuys sale, Christie's, London, lot 106, bought in. 1834, Colonel Bird. 1846, anonymous sale, LeRoy, Brussels [see note 3]. Arthur Wellesley (b. 1769 - d. 1852), 1st Duke of Wellington, London. 1870, Marquis Guy du Blaisel (d. 1870), Paris; March 16-17, 1870, posthumous Blaisel sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, lot 110, bought in; May 17-18, 1872, posthumous Blaisel sale, Christie's, London, lot 147, bought in [see note 4]. 1889, E. Secrétan, Paris; July 1- 4, 1889, Secrétan sale, Galerie Sedelmeyer, Paris, lot 159, to Charles Sedelmeyer (b. 1837 - d. 1925), Paris, for 2600 fr. By 1904, John Wanamaker (b. 1838 - d. 1922), Philadelphia [see note 5]. By 1939, Paul Drey, New York; 1940, sold by Paul Drey to the MFA for $8650. (Accession Date: January 11, 1940)
NOTES:
[1] This painting can be identified with one of the two "portraits of a King of Tunisia after Antonius Moro," that are listed (nos. 148, 149) in the 1640 posthumous inventory of Rubens's possessions. Rubens's portraits of Mulay Ahmad (the MFA painting) and Mulay Hasan (now lost) were in fact made after originals by Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen. For a full discussion, see Julius S. Held, "Rubens' 'King of Tunis' and Vermeyen's Portrait of Mulay Ahmad," Art Quarterly (1940): 30-36.
[2] Peter C. Sutton, Age of Rubens (exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1994), p. 235, cat. no. 9, who cites for this information C. J. Nieuwenhuys, A Review of the Lifes and Works of Some of the Most Eminent Painters (London, 1834), p. 198, no. 47.
[3] The information about Bird and the 1846 sale is taken from Kristin Lohse Belkin and Fiona Healy, A House of Art: Rubens as Collector (Antwerp, 2004), 137, cat. no. 17; it has not been verified.
[4] On the Blaisel sales, see Max Rooses, L'Oeuvre de P. P. Rubens, vol. 4 (Antwerp, 1890), 275, nos. 1067-1068.
[5] E. C. Siter, "Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures by the Old Masters..." (Philadelphia, [1904]), cat. no. 246.
NOTES:
[1] This painting can be identified with one of the two "portraits of a King of Tunisia after Antonius Moro," that are listed (nos. 148, 149) in the 1640 posthumous inventory of Rubens's possessions. Rubens's portraits of Mulay Ahmad (the MFA painting) and Mulay Hasan (now lost) were in fact made after originals by Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen. For a full discussion, see Julius S. Held, "Rubens' 'King of Tunis' and Vermeyen's Portrait of Mulay Ahmad," Art Quarterly (1940): 30-36.
[2] Peter C. Sutton, Age of Rubens (exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1994), p. 235, cat. no. 9, who cites for this information C. J. Nieuwenhuys, A Review of the Lifes and Works of Some of the Most Eminent Painters (London, 1834), p. 198, no. 47.
[3] The information about Bird and the 1846 sale is taken from Kristin Lohse Belkin and Fiona Healy, A House of Art: Rubens as Collector (Antwerp, 2004), 137, cat. no. 17; it has not been verified.
[4] On the Blaisel sales, see Max Rooses, L'Oeuvre de P. P. Rubens, vol. 4 (Antwerp, 1890), 275, nos. 1067-1068.
[5] E. C. Siter, "Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures by the Old Masters..." (Philadelphia, [1904]), cat. no. 246.