101 - Workshop of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)

Workshop of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp) Study of a putto black chalk, red chalk, and white chalk on beige paper, mounted black, red, and white chalks on buff paper laid down on paper 27.1 x 16.1 cm (10 11/16 x 6 5/16 in). Footnotes: Provenance The Collection of Georges Bourgarel Auction, Gutekunst & Klipstein, Bern, November 22, 1956, lot 272 Private Collection, England Auction, Hampel, Munich, June 30, 2022, lot 335 This highly finished study depicts the putto in the upper left corner of Peter Paul Rubens’s celebrated altarpiece *The Virgin and Child Surrounded by the Holy Innocents* (Paris, Musée du Louvre, INV 1763; MR 995), painted in 1618. Although closely corresponding to the figure in the final composition, this drawing possesses the immediacy and naturalism of a study drawn from life, reflecting the practice within Rubens’s workshop of adapting observed models into painted compositions. Throughout this period, Rubens and his studio frequently used studies of children as the basis for figures that reappear in paintings. The present drawing belongs to this tradition, combining careful observation with fluid brushwork and sensitive modeling. Its close relationship to the Louvre altarpiece provides valuable insight into the creative process behind one of the master’s most celebrated religious compositions. Long regarded as an autograph work by Rubens and previously offered as such (see Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, January 28, 2015, lot 62), recent scholarship has attributed the drawing to the artist’s studio, suggesting that it was executed by a workshop assistant working under the master’s supervision. Nevertheless, the sheet remains an important document of the working practices of the Rubens studio around 1618, illustrating the collaborative process through which studies from life were transformed into finished compositions. For further information on this lot, please visit Bonhams.com