An unknown Antonius Claeissens?

Chorley's, from England, sells on 28 January 2020 a "17th century Flemish" Virgin and Child, estimated at £700 to £1,000.

The remarkable physique of the Virgin, with the very broad shoulders, makes me believe that we should look in the direction of the Claeissens brothers from Bruges.

Probably the closest is a work by Antonius Claeissens (active 1551-1613), which has a very similar Virgin, with a comparable background as well (found through RKD). The row of tassels at the top is comparable, but most striking is the nearly identical dress of the Virgin, with the same border decoration.

The chances of having the same bodytype for the rather solemn virgin, with the same dress and decoration, same type of flower, same type of background, but a different artist or workshop, seems rather slim.

Antoon Claeissens is sadly the least interesting of the four Claeissens (compared to his brother Pieter the Younger and certainly his other brother Gilles or his father Pieter the Elder). Even so, this is a relatively rare work from the very last spasms of the great School of Bruges which started with Van Eyck, Memling and Christus, and which was already overtaken by the more modern art of the Pourbus family.

This work should be worth 2,000 to 3,000 Euro.

UPDATE: sold for 7,500, impressive!