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Your galleryStudy for "The Bear Hunt" (for the Alcázar, Madrid)
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Watch the rider at left wrestle with a rearing bear while a companion rides in to help, then follow the hounds to the second bear at right.
In June 1639 King Philip IV of Spain heard from his brother Ferdinand that Rubens had completed every oil sketch for a set of paintings meant for the Alcázar palace in Madrid. This is one of seven sketches that survive from the eighteen. Rubens died the next year, and the large paintings were never completed.
oil on wood · Framed: 70.5 x 40.6 x 7.6 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art · Baroque
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Study for "The Bear Hunt" (for the Alcázar, Madrid)
- Artist
- Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640)
- Date
- c. 1639
- Medium
- 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.)
- Credit line
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.