Death on Horseback Chasing a Flying Knight

Also known as: Proverb on Death

Inscriptions

signed, lower center, in brown ink: [artist's monogram: SV] ; by artist, lower right, in brown ink: @ 1631 ; upper center, in brown ink: Geen man soo cloeck, nooch dier soo snel / De doot en Achter-haelt hun wel, [= No man [is] so clever, nor animal so swift/ Death overtakes them all] ; VERSO OF SECONDARY SUPPORT, upper center, in graphite: Bought at Vienna / 1817 ; center, in graphite: Sebastian Vrancx ; lower right, in graphite: 10 1/8 x 12 3/8 / 15 5/8 x 17 3/8

Exhibition history

Year in Review: 1980. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 24-July 19, 1981). Seventeenth Century Netherlandish Graphics. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-August 1, 1982). National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). Netherlandish Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 10-December 31, 1989).

Quick Overview

Artist: Sebastian Vrancx (Flemish, 1573–1647)
Date: 1631
Medium: pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, over traces of graphite; framing lines in brown ink (bottom edge)
Dimensions: Sheet: 20.1 x 26 cm (7 15/16 x 10 1/4 in.)
Type: Drawing
Classification: Drawing
Department: Drawings
Credit line: Dudley P. Allen Fund
Accession no.: 1980.19

Provenance

Serge Philipson Serge Philipson (according to departmental cataloguing sheet (not in Lugt)); [Remiel M. Howitt, London (according to departmental cataloguing sheet]]

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.