Peter Paul Rubens

Siegen 1577 – 1644 Antwerp, attributed to his workshop
The Infant Jesus and the Boy John
Oil on canvas
116 x 153 cm, framed 129 x 168 cm
Provenance:
Roman aristocratic property, from a palazzo in Rome
Private collection Hamburg

This particularly charming scene of Jesus and John the Baptist as children, playing with the lamb, is one of the most famous subjects by the Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). The painting comes from a private collection in Hamburg and goes back to a Roman aristocratic estate (“Roman version”).

During a visit to the auction house, the art expert Prof. Dr. Nils Büttner provided the expert information that the paintings of the Rubens workshop have a grey ground coat. This can also be found in the present painting, which we therefore believe to be a creation from the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens. The work stands out in comparison to the repetitions of this popular subject after an original by Rubens that was believed to be lost due to its high quality. It is worth mentioning that world-class museums such as the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and the National Museum in Warsaw also own repetitions of Rubens’ workshop of the same subject.

The prince of painters
Who was Peter Paul Rubens? The Flemish painter was born in Siegen/Westphalia in 1577. After learning the craft of painting from Tobias Verhaecht, Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen, he joined the Guild of St. Luke in Antwerp in 1598. At the beginning of the 17th century, he spent time in Italy and Spain. He was particularly influenced by Italian painting, especially the Renaissance works of Titian and those of antiquity, which he was able to study thanks to the patronage of the court in Mantua. After his return to Antwerp, his marriage and subsequent employment as court painter to the governor and his wife, he created a studio that is considered to be the largest artist’s workshop in the Baroque period. As the so-called “Prince of Painters”, he carried out numerous ecclesiastical and secular commissions.