THOMAS STOTHARD (London, 1755 - 1834) Triumph of Neptune Oil on canvas, 125X134.5 cm Provenance: The Audubon Canyon Ranch New York, Sotheby's, 7 April 1988, lot 117 (as Thomas Stothard) Italy, private collection The painting displays a manifest Rubensian character that evokes Quos Ego, or The Happy Sea Voyage of the Cardinal-infant belonging to the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden (cf. M. Jaffé, Complete Catalogue of Rubens, Milan 1989, p. 338, nos. 1120 and 1117), but also Jacob Jordaens' painting of Neptune Creates the Horse in the Pitti Palace. Having said this, the composition does not find precise references, so it must be judged as an autonomous work, a free interpretation of Baroque taste that is highly scenic and also the result of the considerable influence that another follower of Rubens, Antoon Van Dyck, exerted on British artists of the Ancien Régime.