General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Friday Afternoon Challenge Returns...again! Today’s puzzler: What’s going on here? [View all]Chiyo-chichi
(3,979 posts)Does it have to do with art theft again? Napoleon took the one from the cathedral to Paris & it wasn't returned to Antwerp until 1815. That doesn't address your clue about whether the entire picture is in a frame.
This Wikimedia page http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Peter_Paul_Rubens/1609%E2%80%931612 shows both the sketch and the painting if you scroll down. It says the sketch is at the Louvre.
According to this 1904 book-- http://books.google.com/books?id=Y-9ZAAAAYAAJ&dq=rubens%20rooses&pg=PP14#v=onepage&q&f=false -- (page 130), he first did the sketch that is in the Louvre, then he did a painted sketch, which at the time of this book was privately owned, then another (?) sketch that sold at Christie's in 1901. So there are three versions in addition to the one in Antwerp?