With no more than 206 galleries setting up shop under the Grand Palais’ glass roof at this week’s Art Basel Paris, it’s important to stand out from the crowd. Some dealers might showcase an eye-catching sculpture (like Ginny on Frederick at Frieze London last week) or curate a quirky salon hang. But if you’re Gagosian, you rewrite the Art Basel Paris rule book by bringing a rediscovered Old Master to a fair that usually only allows post-20th century artworks.
This year the mega-gallery has been allowed to present a masterwork by the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens. It’s titled The Virgin and Christ Child, with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist (c. 1611–14) and was most recently sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2020 for a shade over $7 million.
Art Basel Paris gave Gagosian the green light to break the mold in recognition of the painting’s “exceptional quality and its resonance with other modern and contemporary works in our booth,” the gallery said in a statement.
“Following discussions within the Art Basel management team and approval from Art Basel Paris’ Selection Committee, Gagosian has been exceptionally authorized to present [the Rubens work],” an Art Basel spokesperson told ARTnews. “While galleries in Art Basel’s main sector are asked to exhibit works created between 1900 and 2025, the Paris fair’s Premise sector, comprising nine distinct, curated presentations, was designed to include art made prior to 1900. This year, for example, Parisian gallery Pavec will present works by French Impressionist Marie Bracquemond made in the late 1800s.”
Sotheby’s 2020 catalog entry for The Virgin and Christ Child, with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist reads: “Upon seeing the painting in the early 1950s… Ludwig Burchard, the great connoisseur of Rubens’s art, declared it to be the prime version of this popular subject.”
Another version of the Rubens’ work hangs in the Thyssen-Bornemisza’s permanent collection in Madrid. Gagosian described its own version as “comparable.”
In Paris, the gallery will show the oil on panel, which measures 48 x 38 inches, alongside works by John Currin, Jadé Fadojutimi, Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Jenny Saville, “and other artists who have shaped the course of postwar and contemporary art.”
Larry Gagosian, the gallery’s founder, told ARTnews: “I have great affinity for Old Masters and Rubens in particular, which goes back at least 30 years, when I organized an exhibition of works by the artist at my New York gallery. Over the past decade or so, I have noticed a renewed interest in the period, particularly when I think of artists like John Currin, Jenny Saville, Anna Weyant, and Glenn Brown, where there is clearly an inspiration. In the context of our booth, and the spectacular Beaux Arts architecture of the Grand Palais, I felt the Rubens would resonate and be a treat for the audience in Paris.
The exhibition the dealer mentioned was titled “Peter Paul Rubens: Oil Paintings and Oil Sketches” and happened in 1995 at his 980 Maddison Avenue address.
It’s not unusual for galleries to display surprise works at art fairs, but they usually comply with the rules on what type of art is permitted. For example, at last year’s Art Basel Paris, Hauser & Wirth brought along Kazimir Malevich’s 1915 painting Suprematism, 18th construction, which previously sold at Sotheby’s in 2015 for $33.6 million. It was a big draw and the gallery later confirmed to ARTnews that it had sold for a similar figure. The Swiss mega-gallery also headlined its booth at this year’s Art Basel in Switzerland with a hypnotic, moody Mark Rothko from the early 1960s that wasn’t on any of the PDFs circulated ahead of the fair. “There’s only so much you can see on a screen—nothing replaces the moment you stand in front of a work in real life,” Iwan Wirth, the gallery’s cofounder, told ARTnews.
Art Basel Paris opens its doors to VVIPs on Tuesday ahead of the VIP days on Wednesday and Thursday.
