Rediscovered Rubens Notebook Page Goes on View for the First Time
A rediscovered double-sided sheet from Peter Paul Rubens’s Roman notebook, dated September 1607, has gone on public view for the first time in Antwerp. Acquired at TEFAF Maastricht by the King Baudouin Foundation for €110,000 (about $121,100), the page includes pen-test squiggles, a sketch of three classically robed figures thought to be apostles, and a draft letter to painter Cristoforo Roncalli about a commission for Eleonora de’ Medici. The sheet debuted on May 19 in the “Rubens Experience” at the Rubenshuis and will remain on display until renovations to the Rubenshuis are completed, no earlier than 2030. Curator An Van Camp described the letter as evidence of Rubens’s early diplomatic skill in balancing de’ Medici’s impatience with Roncalli’s seniority.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Auction Fever, Art’s Lost-and-Found Reckoning