Rubens’ Cain Slaying Abel has returned to display at The Courtauld Gallery after conservation treatment funded by a Bank of America Merrill Lynch Art Conservation Project Award and undertaken by Kate, Clare and Graeme Barraclough from The Courtauld Gallery. Alongside the conservation work, a new infrared reflectogram was taken of the painting, revealing never before seen underdrawing in the landscape background. Hidden beneath azurite blue paint, the drawing can only be seen using the broader range of the infrared spectrum visible to the OSIRIS camera, as azurite remains opaque to infrared photographic techniques. Visit our gallery for a close look at the infrared image.

Whilst the figures are painted in Ruben’s typical manner, using broad painted strokes – see for example the eyes of Cain in the detail below, the landscape is planned in a strikingly different style. This suggests the involvement of a landscape specialist for this passage, a collaborator whose existence is acknowledged in Rubens’ correspondence. The research and conservation treatment were featured in The Independent online as well as in The Art Newspaper.

Infrared reflectogram details ©TSR/Opus Instruments, Rubens’ Cain Slaying Abel, P.1978.PG.353; ©The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London