Belgian art dealer Klaas Muller has identified a new study of a bearded man’s head by Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens, according to a lengthy report in the Dutch daily newspaper De Standaard.
Muller bought the work, an oil on paper laid on panel that is now titled Bearded old man, looking down to his left (ca. 1609), at an auction three years ago from “lesser-known auction house in northern Europe,” declining to name it for fear of increased competition, he told the Guardian.
The auction house had listed it as an unknown artist from the “Flemish school” and without a date. As soon as Muller saw it on the auction house’s website, he was immediately taken by it and began doing more research. “I saw that the work had quality. The character didn’t seem unfamiliar to me,” he told De Standaard. “I found that head in the series of apostles that Rubens painted for the Duke of Lerma. There he is depicted as Saint Thomas. The painting hangs in the Prado in Madrid. That was an exciting discovery.”
Not wanting to attract more attention to the lot, Muller didn’t request more images or information, according to De Standaard. He coordinated with the auction house to bid by phone, as well as online; he ultimately won it for less than €100,000 ($116,300), per the Guardian.
The work has hung in Muller’s home since he bought it, though he plans to bring it to the Brafa Art Fair in Brussels later this month. Muller told ARTnews he is still determining the asking price for the study. The record for a Rubens study stands at $8.2 million, achieved at a Sotheby’s sale of Old Master drawings in 2019.
Muller asked art historian Ben van Beneden, a former director of Rubenshuis, to conduct research on the work. “The work is executed with exceptional verve and with a stunning economy of means,” van Beneden told De Standaard, citing the “remarkable skill” used to render the man’s facial features. Van Beneden, however, stopped short of fully attributing the work to Rubens, telling the Guardian that “it’s very likely” and “that virtuosity could point to the hand of Rubens,” per De Standaard’s report.
The painting is also noteworthy in that the artist recycled the paper and the ghost of a woman’s face is visible in the man’s beard, when the work is turned upside down. “This visual echo adds an unexpected layer to the work and bears witness to Rubens’ playful approach to materials and composition,” Muller’s description for the work on Brafa’s preview reads.
Per that entry, Muller claims that Rubens would use the bearded man’s head in various paintings, often in different roles. Among them are The Elevation of the Cross (1610–11), a triptych owned by the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, where the man is depicted as St. Amand, as well as two works owned by the Prado in Madrid: The Adoration of the Magi (1609) as Melchior and in a portrait of St. Thomas from the artist’s “Apostolado Lerma” series.
