WORKSHOP OF SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS, SIEGEN, 1577 - 1640, ANTW...

Estimate

£3,000 - £5,000

WORKSHOP OF SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS, SIEGEN, 1577 - 1640, ANTWERP, 17TH CENTURY OIL ON CANVAS
Two Friars of the Order of St Anthony, re-lined, held in a fine carved giltwood frame decorated with foliage.
(sight 50cm x 63cm, frame 76cm x 89cm)

N.B. The present work is larger in scale and with the inclusion of the distant landscape, more complete in composition than any of the versions currently known that have been attributed to either Rubens or Van Dyck.

Another version of the work known as “Two Monks” has been attributed to the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens 1577-1640 and previous - Attributed to Anthony Van Dyck 1599 - 1641 [ Oil on oak panel
51.4cm x 46.5cm ] The Jordaens Van Dyck Panel Paintings Project (JVDPPP) Dendro report no
LO027/2018

Another work is also known as “Two Monks Reading’ by Thomas Gainsborough R.A. 1727-1788 (Ashmolean Museum) copied by the artist - oil on panel - from the work in his personal collection. That original work was fully given to Rubens as noted in the inscription to the engraved version made by Jonathon Spilsbury 1737 - 1812, published May 26, 1766 - engraved while the painting was in Gainsborough’s possession and with the artist’s permission: ‘A work which was thought to be by Rubens and which hung on Gainsborough’s wall”. Jonathon Spilsbury was a regular visitor to Bath in the 1760’s together with his wife Rebecca ( nee Chapman ), and was part of Gainsborough’s circle of friends. Their friendship was captured in Gainsborough’s ‘Portrait of a Pug Belonging to Jonathan Spilsbury’ [ Sold Sotheby’s Lot 7, 27 Nov 2003]