Anonymous painting bought at auction on ‘hunch’ identified as two-in-one Rubens
The Guardian••entertainment
Key Points:
- Belgian art dealer Klaas Muller acquired a rare dual-image study by Peter Paul Rubens, featuring an optical illusion of a bald elderly man with a beard and a young woman with braided hair, for under €100,000 at a lesser-known northern European auction house.
- The painting, initially attributed to an anonymous Flemish master, was later examined by art historian Ben van Beneden, who confirmed its high craftsmanship and strong likelihood of being an authentic Rubens study.
- The elderly man depicted appears in several famous Rubens works, such as The Raising of the Cross and The Adoration of the Magi, suggesting this study could be a prototype of a now-lost original.
- The young woman image was painted first, likely
