18 - Spanish School (late 18th Century) The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, after Anton Rafael Mengs (1728-1779) oil on canvas Unframed: 112 x 90 cm. (44 1/8 x 35 3/8 in.) Framed: 113.5 x 92 cm. (44 3/4 x 36 1/4 in.) Private Collection, London. This painting is a later copy of The Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Anton Rafael Mengs, dated 1768 and now in the Palacio Real, Madrid.1 The original, of which two preliminary drawings exist, is in the Uffizi Department of Prints and Drawings, first belonged to Don Luis de Borbón before passing to the Prince of Asturias, later Charles IV of Spain.2 As the principal court painter to Charles III in Madrid, Mengs exerted a significant influence on other artists active in the Spanish capital in the last decades of the eighteenth century. The present painting was likely executed by one of these artists after Don Luis de Borbón died in 1785 and work began on producing an engraving after Mengs’ original. While the identity of the copyist is unknown, the high quality of this painting suggests that they were well trained. We are grateful to Prof. Dr. Steffi Roettgen for her assistance with the cataloguing of this lot based on digital images. References: 1 S. Roettgen, Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779), Vol. I, Munich 1999, pp. 63-64 2 Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779), catalogue of the exhibition Madrid, Museo del Prado, 25.11.2025-01.03.2026, ed. by A. Úbeda de los Cobos and J. Jordán de Urries y de la Colina, Madrid 2025, cat. 15, pp. 210-213 (J. Jordán de Urries y de la Colina).