Saint Catherine

Saint Catherine, attributed to Rubens with a date of 1751 and held in the Courtauld Institute of Art, belongs to a group of posthumous Rubenesque works that circulated under the master's name throughout the eighteenth century. Saint Catherine of Alexandria — the aristocratic philosopher-martyr who confounded fifty pagan scholars in debate and was tortured on the spiked wheel that miraculously broke before her eventual beheading — was among the most popular female saints of the Catholic tradition and among the most frequently depicted in Rubens's genuine output. Rubens painted multiple authentic Catherine subjects, most notably for the Augustinian church in Antwerp, where her combination of intellectual authority and feminine beauty aligned perfectly with his aesthetic values. The Courtauld holds this work as a later work in the Rubenesque tradition rather than an autograph Rubens; their collection, built primarily by Samuel Courtauld in the early twentieth century with a focus on Impressionism, also includes significant Flemish and Italian works acquired through the Princes Gate collection. The painting documents the remarkable persistence of Rubens's iconographic legacy in Flemish religious painting across more than a century after his death.

The saint would be depicted with her characteristic wheel attribute, likely in three-quarter format with rich drapery and the dignified bearing of learned Christian martyrdom. The Rubenesque rendering emphasizes warm, luminous flesh and the opulent texture of silk and jewels.