(Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
The Holy Family with the Infant St John and a Lamb,
oil on canvas, 117 x 139 cm, framed

The composition of the painting at hand is familiar from several versions from the workshop of Rubens. In addition, there is a drawing at Princeton, a painting attributed to Erasmus Quellinus (cf. J. P. de Bruyn, Erasmus Quellinus, Freren 1988, p 10, 22, 51 and 96f., No. 4, ill. 4), as well as another one at Merion Station, Pennsylvania, attributed to Rubens‘ workshop. Unlike the Quellinus version, the features of the Infant St John was in this case clearly inspired by Rubens‘ studies of his son Albert. This suggests that the painting originated close to the master himself. A similar drawing at Princeton was published by Ludwig Burchard and Roger d’Hulst as a work by Rubens (cf. J. A. Goris and J. Held, Rubens in America, New York 1946, p 33). Michael Jaffé attributed the drawing to Van Dyck (cf. M. Jaffé, Rubens as a Draughtsman, in: The Burlington Magazine, CVII, No. 748, July 1965, p 379). Julius Held pointed out that the version attributed to Quellinus has been cut on both edges, while the Merion Station version, a workshop piece, probably reflects the original composition and presumably is based on a lost original by Rubens (cf. J. Held, in: The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens, Princeton 1980, vol. I, p 639).

It is impossible to say if in the present painting we are dealing with the lost original or yet another copy, or to what extent it may have served as the basis for printed reproductions. Most likely it represents another variation on a particularly popular subject from the inner circle of Rubens. Attributions to Erasmus Quellinus during his time at the Rubens workshop as well as to Jan van den Hoecke have both been suggested.