Rubens, "Virgin and Child" (without Saint Anne)

This is an interesting one. At Vanderkindere, 10 February 2015, they sell a "Workshop of Pieter Paul Rubens" painting of the "Virgin and Child". Looking at the clothes and so on, I would call this a rather weak copy (the folds in the sleeve of the Virgin!), but especially the faces are actually much, much better, even if they are not really up to Rubens' standards. Whether this is due to different hands in the original, or rather poor overpaintings is not completely clear, although judging from the overall condition I guess there has been a fair amount of "restoration" to this painting in a distant past, resulting in some strange discolourations in the faces. 

The Hermitage Museum has another version of the same painting, also described as "Workshop of Rubens". Some details in it are a lot better (e.g. the hair of the child is much more loosely and lively painted than the rather stylised hair in the version for sale), but e.g. the face of the Virgin is at first glance actually less Rubens-like than the one offered here.

The Metropolitan Museum has another version of the same painting (also "Workshop of"), where the hair of the child is a lot closer to the one for sale here. The Met version seems to be of higher quality, the love between the motther and child is captured much better here, with the two actually looking at each other instead of past each other.

So, the one for sale is, even in its best parts, not as good as the Metropolitan Museum version; but is it good enough to be called a "Workshop" version, or is it a very old copy (assuming this hasn't been faked, then the panel has been prepared before the death of Rubens already)? My guess would be that the auction house is right, and that the damaged and probably overpainted picture is in origin a decent workshop version of this painting. If so, the 4,000 to 5,000 Euro asking price is a real bargain, and it should fetch 10,000 Euro or more, from a buyer prepared to have the painting then restored to its former glory. UPDATE: it sold for 11,000 Euro! I'm glad that sometimes I do live up to my "augur" handle and predict the outcome quite accurately :-)

Strangely, there also exist copies (1, 2) of the same picture but with a Saint Anne added. As this distorts the composition rather badly, I believe that the one without Saint Anne is the original, and the one with Saint Anne is an afterthought or a later version.