Monday Morning Museum: Peter Paul Rubens

Self-Portrait, 1623 by Peter Paul Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens – Friday 28 June 1577 Siegen, Germany to Saturday 30 May 1640 Antwerp, Belgium

Flemish Baroque Era Painter

Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment (1614-1673), and One of Their Children, Mid-1630s

"This magnificent portrait of Rubens, his second wife, Helena Fourment, and one of their five children has usually been dated on stylistic grounds to the late 1630s. The child's blue sash, heavy shoes, and plain collar resemble adult male attire and suggest that he is either Frans Rubens, born in 1633, or, more likely, Peter Paul, born March 1, 1637.

Rubens married Helena Fourment on December 6, 1630, when he was fifty-three and she was sixteen. Helena became the model and the inspiration for many paintings by Rubens dating from the 1630s, particularly those dealing with themes of ideal beauty or love. The present composition was considerably revised during execution to shift the emphasis from Rubens, as the dominant half of a courtly couple, to Helena, as ideal wife and mother. The parrot, long a symbol of the Virgin Mary, suggests ideal motherhood, while the fountain, caryatid, and garden setting imply fertility and recall Rubens's own garden in Antwerp, where he frequently escorted Helena." – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last Monday’s Artist – Jean-Antoine Houdon
Next Monday’s Artist – Filippo Lippi

“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent