Coast View with the Rape of Europa

This myth, drawn from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (II: 833–875), inspired Claude to execute one engraving, five paintings, and at least seven drawings. In all his handlings of this theme, Claude showed only the first act of the story, when Europa agrees to climb on the back of the quiet bull; he thereby refused to depict the violence of the abduction itself. The meticulous elaboration of this drawing suggests that it was important to Claude and was perhaps done for a patron or major collector. This Rape of Europa was already owned by Everhard Jabach prior to 1761, when it was acquired along with the rest of Jabach’s “first” collection by the Cabinet du Roi. It is therefore the sole drawing by Claude incontrovertibly acquired by Louis XIV during the artist’s lifetime.