STUDIO OF SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS | Study for Romulus and Remus

Georg Stratigos, 1930 (as Van Dyck, with a certificate from Gustav Glück).

E. McGrath, Subjects from history, in Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Part XIII, 1, London 1997, vol. I, pp. 161-64, cat. no. 33a, and under cat. no. 33, reproduced vol. II, fig. 114 (as a copy). 

The canvas is lined, the paint surface is clean and the varnish is slightly discoloured. The network of craquelure in the child's flesh tones is quite deep, and there are some visible retouchings in his stomach and chest. Inspection underneath ultraviolet light reveals these, as well as an extensive campaign in the background and along all four edges. There are further retouchings throughout the child's flesh tones, most notably his proper left arm, as well as in his hair, and a vertical line which runs the height of the canvas down the centre of the composition. In overall fair condition. Offered in a carved and lacquered wooden frame in very good condition.
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When this painting was in the collection of Georg Stratigos, it was attributed by Glück to Van Dyck, as a study for the baby in the corner of The Young Virgin adorned with Flowers, which he also believed to be an autograph work by Van Dyck.¹ Since that time, the Liechtenstein sketch has been re-attributed to Rubens, and it appears that Ludwig Burchard considered the present work to be a study by Rubens himself for various paintings, particularly that in the Liechtenstein collection. Elizabeth McGrath has more recently convincingly argued that the present painting is a copy of the baby on the right of Romulus and Remus, now also considered most probably to be the work of Rubens' Studio.² Indeed, the curls of hair and folds of flesh, not to mention the position of the other baby's hand, are reproduced exactly here.

1. Vaduz, The Liechtenstein Collection; see McGrath 1997, reproduced vol. II, fig. 116. 
2. On loan Raleigh, North Carolina Museum; see McGrath 1997, vol. I, pp. 161-63, cat. no. 33, reproduced vol. II, fig. 115.