{"id":56960,"date":"2025-09-12T10:37:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T14:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/?p=56960"},"modified":"2025-09-12T10:37:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T14:37:19","slug":"rubens-rediscovered-in-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/2025\/09\/rubens-rediscovered-in-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubens Rediscovered in Paris"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

Christ on the Cross<\/em> by Peter Paul Rubens<\/p><\/div>\n

A French auctioneer has rediscovered a lost masterpiece by the Baroque Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christ on the Cross<\/span><\/em> has allegedly been missing since shortly after its creation in the second decade of the seventeenth century. And now, Jean-Pierre Osenat, who runs the auction house Osenat, claims to have found the painting in a Paris mansion. He says he came across the 41.5-by-28.5-inch work while cataloguing the inventory of a home in the city\u2019s 6th arrondissement, traditionally a hub of artistic and intellectual life in the French capital. Since then, the painting has been authenticated by Dr. Nils B\u00fcttner, a professor at the Stuttgart State Academy of Fine Arts who specializes in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century German, Dutch, and Flemish art. Dr. B\u00fcttner is also the chairman of the Centrum Rubenianum in Antwerp. This organization publishes the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, the main Rubens catalogue raisonn\u00e9 since 1963. In his announcement, Osenat remarked, \u201cThis is an extremely rare and incredible discovery that will define my career as an auctioneer.\u201d According to new research, the first time the painting appears in any provenance documents was in the possession of the renowned nineteenth-century academic master William-Adolphe Bouguereau. B\u00fcttner and Osenat guess that the painting went from Bouguereau to the family that owned the inventoried house. The painting\u2019s owners beyond the nineteenth century are unknown.<\/span><\/p>\n

Osenat claims that this Rubens is one of the starting points of Baroque era painting in Europe. To a certain extent, he is correct. Religious art showing the crucified Christ was not new by the time of Rubens. But the Flemish master\u2019s particular rendition of the subject was incredibly influential. According to art historians like Michael Jaff\u00e9, Baroque era depictions of Christ on the cross became modeled after two different artists\u2019 styles. <\/span>The style pioneered by the Italian painter Guido Reni<\/span><\/a> shows Jesus in a very statuesque manner, seeming almost peaceful and stoic. However, <\/span>the depiction favored by Rubens<\/span><\/a> shows the opposite. Christ\u2019s muscles are tensed up, his fingers are bent into claws, and a look of torment crosses his face. His arms stretch almost straight up instead of out to his sides, contorting his body with a protruding chest. Rubens created several versions of this painting, nearly all from the same ten-year period. Some of these paintings now belong to various museum collections, including the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. The painting recently uncovered by Osenat, however, is almost the same as these other works, yet shows slight differences. Instead of a look of anguish, the face of the recently rediscovered crucified Christ has its eyes closed, head lolling off to the side. The upper body is slightly relaxed, but his hands are still clenched. It\u2019s almost as if this rendition depicts Jesus a moment later, losing consciousness from the pain. It\u2019s not just a copy of a subject the artist had done time and again. With the added context of the Rubens-Reni dichotomy, the differences, however small, make the rediscovered painting more interesting.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his announcement, Osenat stated that the painting would be featured in the Tableaux Anciens sale scheduled for November 30th. It is not known how much specialists estimate the painting would sell for.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A French auctioneer has rediscovered a lost masterpiece by the Baroque Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens. Christ on the Cross has allegedly been missing since shortly after its creation in the second decade of the seventeenth century. And now, Jean-Pierre … More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":56962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[524,345,854,207,774,775,58,876,9,743],"class_list":["post-56960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rehs-galleries","tag-17th-century","tag-17th-century-art","tag-17th-century-flemish","tag-auction-news","tag-baroque","tag-baroque-art","tag-old-masters","tag-rediscovered","tag-rehs-galleries-news","tag-rubens"],"yoast_head":"\nRubens Rediscovered in Paris - Rehs Galleries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A French auctioneer may have rediscovered a lost masterpiece by the Baroque Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/2025\/09\/rubens-rediscovered-in-paris\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rubens Rediscovered in Paris\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A French auctioneer may have rediscovered a lost masterpiece by the Baroque Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/2025\/09\/rubens-rediscovered-in-paris\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rehs Galleries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RehsGalleriesInc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-12T14:37:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/RubensChrist.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2213\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nathan Scheer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nathan Scheer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/rubens-rediscovered-in-paris\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/rubens-rediscovered-in-paris\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nathan Scheer\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1d33fd182b28afdad8fc3548ffe6bdc4\"},\"headline\":\"Rubens Rediscovered in Paris\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-12T14:37:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/rubens-rediscovered-in-paris\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":567,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/rubens-rediscovered-in-paris\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/RubensChrist.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"17th century\",\"17th Century Art\",\"17th Century Flemish\",\"Auction News\",\"baroque\",\"baroque art\",\"Old Masters\",\"rediscovered\",\"Rehs Galleries - 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