A long-lost, dramatic painting of Jesus Christ‘s crucifixion by 17th century Flemish master painter Peter Paul Rubens was found in a mansion in Paris, and will be auctioned this fall.
Christ on the cross (1613) was discovered by French auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat last September, while preparing to selling the private residence in the city’s 6th district, according to AFP, which first reported the news.
Osenat said the large Baroque painting measuring 42 by 29 inches was “a true profession of faith and a favourite subject for Rubens, a protestant who converted to Catholicism”.
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“It was painted by Rubens at the height of his talent,” Osenat told AFP, noting the artwork was in “very good condition”.
“It is an extremely rare and incredible discovery,” he added.
Osenat said that Christ on the cross was authenticated by German curator and art historian Nils Buttner, who has been Chairman of the Centrum Rubenianum in Antwerp, Belgium since 2021. The artwork’s provenance was also certified through X-ray imaging, pigment analysis, and other methods.
The painting will also be included in the next Addenda and Corrigenda of Rubens’s catalogue raisonné, reported Artnet News.
Unlike many of the others works by Rubens produced for the Catholic Church, Christ on the cross was likely made for a private collector. Before the owners of the Parisian mansion where the work was discovered, AFP reported the painting “is thought to have belonged to the 19th-century French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau”.
The painting is set to be auctioned off by Osenat’s namesake auction house in Fontainebleu, France during a sale on November 30. No other information about the Rubens painting has been released online, including a sales estimate.