A 'New' Van Dyck

In 2010 Sotheby’s Paris office did a valuation of artwork in a French chateau and spotted this oil painting on oak panel, which the family had owned for at least two centuries and knew by the name Confesseur de Rubens. Sotheby’s experts and independent scholars who were invited to appraise the painting concur that it's an early work by Flemish master Sir Anthony Van Dyck, painted About 1617-20 when he worked in Rubens' studio (title link). If you have £600,000 to £800,000 to spare, Portrait of a Carmelite Monk, Head and Shoulders comes up for auction at Sotheby’s in London on 6 July.