Rubens, Peter Paul (nach) Siegen 1577 - Antwerpen 1640 51 x 37 cm The Holy Family with St. Anne. Oil/copper. From old family property in a private collection in Cologne, acquired in the 1910/20s. This high quality painting is closely related to various versions of this theme by Rubens. Dr. Fred G. Meijer, to whom we are grateful for advice, sees our painting closest to the version that is now in the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh (Inv.-No. 52.9.107) and which is attributed to Rubens and his workshop . Despite the closeness, the two paintings show slight differences in the poses, the colours of the garments and in the background. It is interesting that the setting of the background of the present painting is very similar to that of a print by Hans Witdoeck after a slightly different composition by Rubens. There, however, the Holy Family is shown with Saint Elizabeth and Infant St. John. In this respect, the present painting appears to follow an perhaps unrecorded variant of the painting in Raleigh.