Studio of Peter Paul Rubens

(Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
The Adoration of the Magi,
oil on canvas, 167 x 239 cm, framed

Provenance:
Inventory of the Convent des Récollets, Lille, 1795 (?), inv. no. 325;
Convent of the Bernardines d’Esquermes, Lille, before 1827;
Convent of the Bernardines, Grand Parloir, Bon-Secours, Pérulwelz (Belgium);
sale, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 16 March 1971, lot 43 (purchased by a Belgian collector);
Private collection, Liège, before 1976

Literature:
H. Devisscher/H. Vlieghe, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, V, The Life of Christ before the Passion: The Youth of Christ, Turnhout 2014, vol. 1, p. 208, under no. 41, copy 1, vol. 2, fig. 155, ill.

The present painting is a smaller studio version of a painting by Peter Paul Rubens (executed with Anthony van Dyck’s assistance) in the Neues Palais, Potsdam (Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, inv. no. GKI5224), which is datable to circa 1620. Another version is in the Michaelskirche, Heidenheim/Brenz (Baden-Württemberg). The Adoration of the Magi was a common subject in Rubens’s oeuvre. The peculiarity of this interpretation is the absence of the star of Bethlehem, which is normally shown guiding the three Kings on their way to the newborn Child.