The painting was originally commissioned by Nicolaas II Rockox, Lord mayor of Antwerp, Belgium, for his Rockox House. In addition to being a patron, Rockox was a close personal friend of Rubens. The painting was specifically intended to be placed above a 7-foot mantleshelf, where the painting would have been seen from below. The painting was publicly sold for charity when Rockox died in 1640, but it is unknown who the painting was sold to. In 1700, a panel named "Samson and Delilah was" bought by Prince Johann Adams Andreas I. This painting was likely Rubens' painting. However, when the painting was part of the Liechtenstein Collection in Vienna, Austria in the eighteenth century, the painter was identified as Jan van den Hoecke, who was a principal assistant of Rubens in the 1630s. The painting was then sold in 1880 in Paris, where it was later found by Ludwig Burchard in 1929. Eventually, the painting sold at auction in 1980 at Christie's, purchased by the National Gallery, London for $5 million.