Christ on the Cross by Peter Paul Rubens
A masterwork by the Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens has sold in Paris for €2.94 million after being lost for centuries.
Back in September, I wrote about this lost Rubens painting, Christ on the Cross, and its rediscovery in Paris by auction house owner Jean-Pierre Osenat. When announcing his discovery, Osenat claimed he was asked to catalogue the inventory of a Paris mansion, where he came across the Rubens. Provenance documentation indicates that the work had previously been owned by the nineteenth-century academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau, who later sold it to the family that occupied the inventoried house.
Bouguereau likely understood the work’s art historical significance. Many consider the work Rubens created in his early 30s to be foundational to Baroque painting. The crucified Christ in the rediscovered painting is an example of this. The anguish displayed in the artist’s rendering of Christ’s body was groundbreaking for the time. It was a clear departure from some of the more stoic, serene depictions of the crucifixion that had preceded it, including those by Raphael, Perugino, and even some Baroque artists like Velázquez and Reni. Rubens created several versions of this subject, some of which are now part of the permanent collections of prestigious museums worldwide, including the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
To authenticate the painting, Osenat enlisted renowned Baroque art specialist Dr. Nils Büttner, chair of the Centrum Rubenianum, the primary authority on Rubens. Dr. Büttner confirmed the work’s authenticity and stated it will be included in the next edition of the Rubens catalogue in its addenda and corrigenda section.
At the Tableaux Anciens sale on Sunday, November 30th, Osenat expected the painting to sell for between €1 million and €2 million. However, at the saleroom in Versailles, the bid rose beyond the maximum, with the hammer coming down at €2.3 million, or €2.94 million including fees ($3.4 million). It constituted 93.5% of the sale’s total. This is not particularly surprising since the next-highest estimate on any lot was €30K. Additionally, the sale only had a 53.5% sell-through rate. Regardless, Christ on the Cross is the most expensive work by the artist to sell at auction since his Annunciation became the top lot at Sotheby’s Master Paintings sale this past February with a final bid of $4 million (or $4.8 million w/p).