The two "missing" Rubens cartoons

The "The Triumph of the Eucharist" article mentions the following:

"About the other huge paintings, little is known. Two cartoons, Elijah and the Angel and The Triumph of the Faith found their way into the Louvre by way of the French General Sebastiani, who had acquired them from English art dealer William Buchanan. Buchanan, through an emissary, was responsible for removing all of the cartoons from the Convent in Loeches. Sometime after 1809, General Sebastiani's two cartoons were exhibited in Paris, in the Musee Central des Arts. They are currently in the Musee des Beaux-Arts, in Valenciennes, where they were deposited by the Louvre in 1957. The remaining cartoons are presumed lost in the 1731 fire of the Royal Palace in Brussels where they were thought to be stored."

Valenciennes is a town some 130 miles north of Paris, close to the Belgian border. Here you can enjoy the two "missing" cartoons.


Elijah and the Angel
Oil on canvas 466 cm x 411 (15.2 ft x 13.5 ft)
Musee des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes


Triumph of the Eucharist
Oil on canvas 474 cm x 594 cm (15.5 ft x 19.5 ft)
Musee des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes

There is also a modello of the Triumph of the Eucharist in the Prado Museum. I have put the mirror image here, so you can compare it with a tapestry at the Monastery of The Descalzas Reales, Madrid and see how close it is.


Triumph of the Church
Oil on panel 106 x 86 cm (3.5 ft x 2.8 ft)
Prado Museum


The Triumph of the Church from The Triumph of the Eucharist series, ca. 1628
Tapestry, designed by Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), ca. 1628;
Woven in the Brussels workshop of Jan Raes, ca. 1630
Wool and silk, 15 ft. 9 in. x 24 ft. 8 in. (480 x 750 cm)
Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales, Madrid

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