National Gallery. There is no reason to doubt, with Smith, that “His Majesty sat to him for his portrait, yet it is not a little remarkable that no notice occurs in any of the royal catalogues, or the writers of the period, of the existence of such a portrait.” While in England, Rubens very narrowly escaped drowning while going to Greenwich in a boat. The fact is reported by Lord Dorchester in a letter to Sir Isaac Wake (Sainsbury, cxvi.). At the beginning of March the painter's mission came to a close.
Rubens was now fifty-three years of age; he had been four years a widower, and before the end of the year (December 1630) he entered into a second marriage with a beautiful girl of sixteen, named Helena Fourment. She was an admirable model, and none of her husband's works may be more justly termed masterpieces than those in which she is represented (Munich, St Petersburg, Blenheim, Liechtenstein, the Louvre, &c.).
Although the long months of absence could not be termed blanks in Rubens's artistic career, his return was followed by an almost incredible activity. Inspired more than ever by the glorious works of Titian, he now produced some of his best paintings. Brightness in colouring, breadth of touch and pictorial conception, are specially striking in those works we know to have been painted in the latter part of his lifetime. Could anything give a higher idea of Rubens's genius than, for example, the “ Feast of Venus, ” the portrait of “ Helena Fourment ready to enter the Bath, ” or the “ St Ildefonso”? This last picture—now, as well as the two others just alluded to, in the Vienna Gallery—was painted for the church of the convent of St Jacques, in Brussels. On the wings are represented the archdukes in royal attire, under the protection of their patron saints. The presence of these figures has led to some mistake regarding the date of the production, but it has been proved beyond doubt, through a document published by Mr Castan (1884), that the “St Ildefonso ” (at Viennathere is another resembling it at St Petersburg) belongs to the series of works executed after the journeys to Spain and England. Archduke Albrecht had been dead ten years. The picture was engraved by Witdoeck in 1638.
Isabella died in 1633, and we know that to the end Rubens remained in high favour with her, alike as an artist and as a political agent. The painter was even one of the gentlemen she deputed to meet Marie de Médicis at the frontier in 1631, after her escape from France.
Spain and the Netherlands went to war again, the king never ceasing to look upon the Dutch as rebels, and much trouble and suspicion came upon the great artist. As to the real nature of his communing with Frederick Henry of Orange, whom he is known to have interviewed, nothing as yet has been discovered.
Ferdinand of Austria, the cardinal-infant of Spain, was called to the government of the Netherlands on the death of his aunt. He was the king's younger brother, and arrived at Antwerp in May 1635. The streets had been decorated with triumphal arches and “ spectacular," arranged by Rubens, and certainly never equalled by any other Works of the kind.[1] Several of the paintings detached from the arches were offered as presents to the new governor-general, a scarcely known fact, which accounts for the presence of many of these works in public galleries (Vienna, Dresden, Brussels, &c.). Rubens was at the time laid up with gout, but Prince Ferdinand was desirous of expressing his satisfaction, and called upon the painter, remaining a long time at his house. Rubens and Ferdinand had met at Madrid, and only a short time elapsed before the painter was confirmed in his official standing-a matter of small importance, if we consider that the last years of his life were almost exclusively employed in working much more for the king than for his brother. About a hundred and twenty paintings of considerable size left Antwerp for Madrid in 1637, 1638 and 1639; they were intended to decorate the pavilion erected at the Pardo, and known under the name of Torre de la Parada. Another series had been begun, when Ferdinand wrote to Madrid that the painter was no more, and Jordaens would finish the work. Rubens breathed his last on the 3Oth of May 1640.
More fortunate than many artists, Rubens left the world in the midst of his glory. Not the remotest trace of approaching old age, not the slightest failing of mind or skill, can be detected even in his latest works, such as the “ Martyrdom of St Peter ” at Cologne, the “ Martyrdom of St Thomas " at Prague, or the “ judgment of Paris " at Madrid, where his young wife appears for the last time. Rubens has little of the Italian grace and refinement; he was a Fleming throughout, notwithstanding his frequent recollections of those Italian masters whom he most admired, and who themselves have little, if anything, in common with Raphael. But it must be borne in mind how completely his predecessors were frozen into stiffness through italianization, and how necessary it was to bring back the Flemish school to life and nature. Critics have spoken of Rubens's historical improprieties. Of course nobody could suppose that his classical learning did not go far enough to know that the heroines of the Old Testament or of Roman history were not dressed out as ladies of his time; but in this respect he only follows the example of Titian, Paolo Veronese, and many others. I In no other school do we find these animated hunts of lions, tigers, and even the hippopotamus and the crocodile, which may be reckoned among the finest specimens of art, and here again are life and nature displayed with the utmost power. “His horses are perfect in their kind, ” says Reynolds; his dogs are of the strong Flemish breed, and his landscapes the most charming pictures of Brabantine scenery, in the midst of which lay his seat of Steen. As a portrait painter, although less refined than Van Dyck, he shows that eminent master the way; and his ure fancy subjects, as the “ Garden of Love " (Madrid and Dresd)en) and the “Village Feast" (Louvre), have never been equalled.
For nearly one hundred years the Flemish school may be said to have been but a reflection of the Rubenesque principles. Although jordaens and Erasmus Quellin lived till 1678, the school might be termed a body without soul.
Some etchings have been ascribed to Rubens, but except a head of Seneca, the only copy of which is in the Print Room at the British Museum, and a beautiful figure of St Catherine, we can admit none of the other plates said to proceed from Rubens as authentic. Rubens nevertheless exercised an immense influence on the art of engraving. Under his direct guidance Soutman, Vorsterman, Pontius, Witdoeck, the two Bolswerts, Peter de Jode, N. Lauwers, and many others of less note, left an immense number of beautiful plates, reproducing the most celebrated of his paintings. To give an idea of what his influence was capable of accomplishing, pictorially speaking, it might be sufficient to notice the transformation undergone by the Antwerp school of engraving under Rubens; even the modern school of engraving, in more than one respect, is a continuation of the style first practised in Antwerp (see Line Engraving). His influence is scarcely less apparent in sculpture, and the celebrated Luke Fayd'herbe was his pupil.
Never did the Flemish school find a second Rubens. None of his four sons became a painter, nor did any of his three daughters marry an artist. According to Rubens's will, his drawings were to belong to that one of his sons who might become a painter, or in the event of one of his daughters marrying a celebrated artist, they were to be her portion. The valuable collection was dispersed only in 1659, and of the pictures sold in 1640 thirty-two became the property of the king of Spain. The Madrid Gallery alone possesses over sixty of his works. Four years after her husband s death, Helena Fourment married J. B. Van Brouckhoven de Bergheyck, knight of St James, member of the privy council, &c. She died in 1673. In 1746 the male line of Rubens's descendants was completely extinct. In the female line more than a hundred families of name in Europe trace their descent from him.
The paintings of Rubens are found in all the principal galleries in Europe: Antwerp and Brussels, Madrid, Paris, Lille, Dresden, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, St Petersburg, London, Florence, Milan, Turin exhibit several hundreds of his works. J. Smith's Catalogue gives descriptions of more than thirteen hundred compositions.
Literature.—A. van Hasselt, Hlstoire de P. P. Rubens (Brussels, 1840); E. Gachet, Lettres inédttes de P. P. Rubens (Brussels, 1840); W. Noel Sainsbury, Original Unpublished Papers dlustrative of the Life of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (London, 1859); C. Ruelens, Pierre Paul Rubens, documents et lettres (Brussels, 1877); Armand Baschetf “ Rubens en Italie et en Espagne, " in the Gazette des beaux arts, vols. xxii. to xxiv. (Paris, 1867-68); A. Michiels, Rubens et Vécole d'Anvers (Paris, 1877); Cruzada Villaamil, Rubens diplomatic espanol (Madrid, 1874); Gachard, Histofire politique et diplomattque de P. P. Rubens (Brussels, 1877); P. Genard, P. P. Rubens, Aanteekenzngen over den Grooten Meester (Antwerp, 1877); Max Rooses, Tttrer ez portraits gravés d'apres P. P. Rubens, pour Vimprimerie planttmenne (Antwerp,
- ↑ Many sketches of the arches are still preserved in the museums in Antwerp, St Petersburg, Cambridge, Windsor, &c. All the compositions were etched under the direction of Rubens by his pupil I. Van Thulden and published under the title of Pompa mlroitus honori serenissimi Principis Ferdinandi Austriaci S. R. E. card. a S. P. Q. Antwerp. decreta et ordtnata.
