Christ on the Cross with the Magdalen

Apparently not directly related to any autograph altarpiece by the artist, the present work would seem perhaps to connect with a lost Rubens modello. Whilst the handling of the sketch, reflecting Rubens's manner of circa 1612, and the pose of the Magdalen are close to a painting attributed to Rubens in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Toulouse (see A. Rosenberg, Rubens, Klassiker der Kunst, 1911, p. 77), the pose of Christ is similar to that in the Coup de Lance (M.Jaffé, Rubens Catalogo Completo, Milan, 1989, no. 545) and relates to a pen and ink sketch, whose status is unclear (see J. Held, The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens, Princeton, 1980, I, p. 485, under no. 352).