Sketch: James I uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland

Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640)

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

circa 1632 - 1633

This work is a sketch for the ceiling of the Whitehall Banqueting House. Beside James I stands a warrior and behind him a winged figure. Such studies preceded the modelli in which the whole composition is laid out and show the development of the artist's ideas. On the final panel the relationship between the warrior and the King is different and Rubens may have been more concerned at this stage with developing the idea of the two figures rather than their relationship to each other. This work was acquired with assistance from the Wolfson Foundation.

• Medium: oil on panel
• Dimensions: 64 x 48 cm
• Art Fund Grant: £30000 ( Total: £650,700; Tax Remission)
• ArtFunded in: 1985
• Vendor: H R H Davies

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