17th century Flemish school (Workshop of Pieter Paul Rubens) The Adoration of the Shepherds Black pencil and red chalk, highlights of pen and brown ink, brown wash, highlights of white gouache, rubbed with a stylus Dated '1619 (...)' lower right (Restored tears, folds) The adoration of the shepherds, black pen and red chalk, brown wash and white gouache highlights, dated, Flemish School, 17th C. 23.03 x 14.37 in. 58.5 x 36.5 cm Provenance: Private collection, Ile-de-France Our drawing is based on Rubens' painting The Adoration of the Shepherds and is a preparation for the engraving by Paul Pontius (see Hans Devisscher & Hans Vlieghe, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Part V(1), The life of Christ before the Passion, 2014, page 89 under no. 17 in the Print category, repr. Vol. II fig. 55, fig. 1). Rubens used to ask his assistants to prepare drawings for the engravers, in particular his pupil Anton van Dyck, although none of his drawings have survived. The use of red chalk mixed with black stone was fairly rare in the master's studio. It was used by Rubens in Italy when he was copying the masters, and is also to be found in some of Abraham van Diepenbeeck's drawings. However, Diepenbeeck's drawings appear to be of poorer quality than the sheet we are showing today (for comparison, see the drawing in the Rijkmuseum, The Last Communion of Saint Bonaventure, no. RP-T-1897-A-3384). Numerous pen and brown ink repeats clarify certain details of the figures' faces, while touches of wash increase the chiaroscuro effect to be rendered in the engraving. The retouching must have been carried out before the print was produced, either by the head of the studio (Van Dyck?) or by Rubens himself. Flemish school of the 17th century (Workshop of Pieter Paul Rubens) 58.5 x 36.5 cm Our drawing is based on the painting by Rubens, The Adoration of the Shepherds, and is preparatory to the engraving by Paul Pontius (see Hans Devisscher & Hans Vlieghe, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Part V(1), The life of Christ before the Passion, 2014, page 89 under no. 17 in the Print category, repr. Vol. II fig. 55, fig. 1). Rubens used to ask his assistants to prepare drawings for the engravers, in particular his pupil Anton van Dyck, although none of his drawings have survived. The use of red chalk mixed with black stone was fairly rare in the master's studio. It was used by Rubens in Italy when he was copying the masters, and is also to be found in some of Abraham van Diepenbeeck's drawings. However, Diepenbeeck's drawings appear to be of poorer quality than the sheet we are showing today (for comparison, see the drawing in the Rijkmuseum, The Last Communion of Saint Bonaventure, no. RP-T-1897-A-3384). Numerous pen and brown ink repeats clarify certain details of the figures' faces, while touches of wash increase the chiaroscuro effect to be rendered in the engraving. The retouching must have been carried out before the print was produced, either by the head of the studio (Van Dyck?) or by Rubens himself.