Attributed to Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577-1640 Antwerp)

The attribution to Rubens of the present drawing has been broadly accepted by modern scholarship, although the inscription in Richardson's hand on the verso of the mount, and the related entry in Lansdowne MS. 802, raises the prospect of an old attribution to Annibale Carracci. In such a hypothesis, the drawing may have been acquired by Rubens and minimally reworked around the profile, and it may then have passed to Padre Resta with a number of drawings from Rubens's own hand, including those for the Jesuit Church in Antwerp.

A copy of the present drawing, in red chalk, was also in Michael Jaffé's collection and was included in the Jordaens exhibition in Ottawa in 1968-9 (no. 159).

We are grateful to Jeremy Wood for his assistance in preparing this catalogue note.