This famous picture, after having been in the possession of the Duke of Hamilton, was sold—in 1882—to Mr. Denison, Yorkshire. The following is from the catalogue of the Hamilton Palace sale:—
Rubens—Daniel in the Den of Lions.—The prophet is represented sitting naked in the middle of the den, his hands clasped, and his countenance directed upward with an expression of earnest prayer. Nine lions are prowling around him. Engraved by Blooteling, Van der Leuw, and Lamb, and in mezzotint by J. Ward. There is also an etching of it by Street, extremely rare. This is one of the few great pictures by Rubens which we know with certainty to have been entirely executed by his own hand. Rubens says this explicitly in an Italian letter to Sir Dudley Carleton, which Mr. Carpenter has printed in his Pictorial Notices, p. 140. This picture was presented by Sir Dudley Carleton to Charles I., and is inserted in the printed catalogue of his collection at page 87.
| "No. 14. | |
| Done by Sir Peter Paul Rubens. | Item.—A piece of Daniel in the lions' den, with lions about him. Given by the deceased Lord Dorchester to the king, so big as the life, in a black gilded frame." |
It was sold to Mr. Denison for £5145.—Ed.
FOOTNOTES:
[721] 1840.
... doth ... 1835.
[722] 1845.
But these are satiate, and a stillness drear
Calls into life ... 1835.
Satiate are these; and still—to eye and ear;
Hence, while we gaze, ... 1837.
[723] 1837.