Studio of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577-1640 Antwerp)

The subject seems to have been taken from Job 2:9-13. Suffering from boils, which God has sent to test his faith, Job is rebuked by his wife and offered comfort by three of his friends, who 'wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and threw dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word unto him; for they saw that his grief was very great.'
This drawing, based on the central panel of Rubens's triptych Job in distress formerly in St. Nicholas's Church in Brussels, circa 1612, agrees in the main with an engraving by J.L. Kraft and with a black chalk drawing attributed to Nicolaas van der Horst in the Stichting Collectie P. en N. de Boer, Amsterdam (d'Hulst and Vandenven, op. cit, figs. 121 and 124).
D'Hulst and Vanderven, suggesting that the present drawing was a design for an engraving that was never made, attributed the preliminary work in black chalk to Lucas Vorstermans (1643-1699) and the addition of wash and white heightening to Rubens himself.