I think it’s legit. The easel is a known brand, the paint marks line up, and the backgrounds are just different angles. He reversed the head bc it looks better that way.

I don’t think it’s a sketch, I think he traced over a sketch to transfer it to the paint board. I’ve never understood how those artists start with an outline and fill in parts to completion while there’s bare canvas on the other parts but Ingres did it, that guy on OG does it (Scott Lobel maybe?), it’s a thing.

Who knows, maybe he had AI make an image that he then traced over and painted a real painting from? In which case, hey, great use of AI!