Luce Foundation Center for American Art
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Portrait of Rubens' Wife 17th century Unidentified artist oil on canvas 27 1/8 x 21 1/4 in. (69.0 x 54.0 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Mabel Johnson Langhorne 1956.11.28 |
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The subject of this portrait, Helena Fourment, was the second wife of the great Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). They married in 1630, when he was fifty-three and she was sixteen. During his lifetime, Rubens’s works were much admired and copied by other artists, as in this portrait done by an unidentified artist. Paintings by Rubens, and copies of them, were also popular among nineteenth-century American collectors. Harper’s Weekly and other magazines fed public interest in Rubens, printing stories about his family and his beautiful wife Helena. In 1877, Harper’s described her as a “proud, stately lady in rich costume, her countenance expressive of languid complacency,” attributes nicely captured in this seventeenth-century portrait. |
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about Harper’s Weekly
Harper’s Weekly was nicely captured in this seventeenth-century portrait. Posted by cheap uggs from www.uggsforcheap.com September 10, 2009 |
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