Mezzotint, circa 1750. Signed "Js. Mc.Ardell fecit." in the plate.

I. 51.0 x 36.0 cm. S. 52.0 x 36.3 cm. The sheet with a proprietary watermark,

Goodwin 121. The second, final state, with the engraved inscription in the lower margin.

A richly-inked, black, and velvety impression.

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where there is another impression of this mezzotint, "Rubens enjoyed a high reputation in Great Britain throughout the eighteenth century, and prints after his work were published in large numbers. McArdell's mezzotint of Rubens's own family was the first of two such prints published in London after the charming domestic subject; the other was by Charles Phillips . . . The large full-length group portrait was first owned by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722), [as noted in the legend below], it then remained in the family through the late nineteenth century and is now in the Met's collection (1981.238). The artist, his wife Helena, and one of their sons appear within an idealized version of the garden at Rubens's mansion in Antwerp, which survives to this day."

PROVENANCE
The collection of Engineer and Major Frank Bensow (1883-1969), with the ink stamp verso (Lugt 982c).