Brussels dealer’s auction purchase likely contains two studies by Rubens

Belgian art dealer Klaas Muller says a drawing he bought online three years ago for less than €100,000 is likely two studies in one by the Flemish baroque master Peter Paul Rubens.

The work was advertised by what Muller described only as a “lesser-known auction house in northern Europe” as an undated study on paper by an anonymous master of the “Flemish school”. The study of an old man was painted on a reused sheet of paper; when turned over, the silhouette of a woman’s head appears through the model’s beard. Muller said the picture arrived “very dirty” but of extremely high quality.

After several months of study by the art historian Ben van Beneden, a former director of the Rubens House, van Beneden said: “I think it’s very likely,” while also urging caution because the work was a working study rather than a piece made for the market. The old-man figure appears in several known Rubens paintings, including The Raising of the Cross (Antwerp Cathedral), The Adoration of the Magi (Prado, as Melchior) and The Tribute Money (Legion of Honour, San Francisco).

Muller said the woman was painted first and that Rubens probably reused the paper; van Beneden added that Muller “may indeed have found the prototype” of the old man’s head, which is thought to be lost. The drawing hangs in Muller’s home and will be shown at the Brafa art fair in Brussels on 25 January; Muller said he hopes a museum will take it on a long-term loan.

Key Topics

Culture, Peter Paul Rubens, Brafa Art Fair, Antwerp Cathedral, Prado Museum, Klaas Muller