Wolf and Fox Hunt

The Wolf and Fox Hunt is an oil-on-canvas painting by Peter Paul Rubens, executed c. 1616, now held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It shows mounted and walking hunters chasing two wolves and three foxes. It marks the beginning of an intensive creative phase in which Rubens focused on the theme of hunting. The painting was completed with the help of assistants, although the wolves were painted entirely by Rubens. By 67 the canvas had been trimmed at the top and left to fit into a client's home.

Created in 1621 during the Baroque period, this work belongs firmly within the daily life tradition. Peter Paul Rubens worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.

Working in Oil on canvas at 96 5/8 x 148 1/8 in. (245.4 x 376.2 cm), Peter Paul Rubens constructs depth through value contrast rather than outline, letting figures emerge from darkness the way they would under candlelight or through a shuttered window.

Look closely and the painting opens up. Objects you might pass over — a folded letter, a half-drawn curtain, the angle of a glance — were placed to be read. The apparent casualness is staged — objects and gestures are arranged to read as a moment caught rather than composed.

Housed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the painting has passed through the hands of collectors, dealers, and institutions before reaching public view — a provenance that is itself part of the object's story.

“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”