The Tamesis
Belgian art dealer Klaas Muller has uncovered a new study of a bearded man’s head by Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens, according to a lengthy report in a Dutch daily standard.
Müller purchased the work, an oil on paper painting on panel, now titled Old man with beard looking down to his left (c. 1609), three years ago, at a sale at a “less well-known auction house in northern Europe”, he told the Daily Mail, declining to name the auction house for fear of increased competition. guardian.
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The auction house lists it as an unknown artist of the “Flemish School” and it is undated. After seeing it on the auction house’s website, Mueller was immediately drawn to it and began doing more research. “I saw a quality in the work. The role was not new to me,” he told standard. “I discovered this head in the series of Apostles painted by Rubens for the Duke of Lerma. There he was depicted as St. Thomas. The painting hangs in the Prado in Madrid. It was an exciting discovery.”
Mueller reportedly did not want to draw more attention to the plot and did not request more images or information standard. He coordinated with the auction house, bidding by phone and online; he ultimately won the competition for just under 100,000 euros ($116,300) guardian.
The piece has hung in Müller’s home since he bought it, although he plans to take it to the Brafa art fair in Brussels later this month. Mueller told art news He is still determining the asking price for the study. The record for a Rubens study was $8.2 million, set at Sotheby’s 2019 sale of Old Master paintings.
Müller asked art historian Ben van Beneden, former director of the Rubens Museum, to research the work. “This work was done with extraordinary enthusiasm and amazing economy,” van Beneden told standardciting the “extraordinary skill” used to render the man’s facial features. However, van Beneden did not entirely attribute the work to Rubens, telling guardian “It is quite possible” and “The virtuosity could have been attributed to Rubens,” standardreport.
Another noteworthy thing about this painting is that the artist recycled paper, and when the work is turned over, the ghost of the woman’s face can be seen in the man’s beard. “This visual echo adds an unexpected layer to the work and bears witness to Rubens’s playful approach to materials and composition,” Müller wrote in a description of the work in Braffa’s preview.
According to the entry, Müller claimed that Rubens would use the head of a bearded man in various paintings, often playing different roles. Among them are height of cross (1610-11), a triptych owned by the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp in which the man is depicted as Saint Amand, and two works owned by the Prado in Madrid: Worship of the Magi (1609) As a portrait of St. Thomas from the series “Apostolado Lerma” by Melchior and the artist.
