The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth and the infant Saint John the Baptist, a sketch

The present composition must have enjoyed considerable success, as it is known in two slightly different versions. The earlier version, represented by this painting and a somewhat larger sketch in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg, includes a landscape at left and has been dated by Julius Held to circa 1630-1632 (see J. Held, The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens: A Critical Catalogue, Princeton, 1980, I, pp. 507-508, no. 372, II, fig. 363). A slightly later example, lacking the landscape and with an arch added behind Saint Elizabeth, was formerly on the New York art market (see Held, I, p. 508, no. 373, II, fig. 364). This composition subsequently informed several large canvases, including examples in the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; Bennington Museum, Bennington, VT; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Troyes; and formerly the Cook collection (sold at Sotheby's, London, 25 July 1958, lot 117), none of which can be given to Rubens in full.