Background
Peter Paul Rubens was born on June 28, 1577 in Siegen, Nassau-Dillenburg, Holy Roman Empire (present-day Siegen, Germany) into the family of Jan Rubens, a magistrate of Antwerp, and Maria Pypelinckx, a writer. Peter had six siblings.
Peter Paul Rubens
Helena Fourment, Peter's wife
Isabella Brant, Peter's late wife
Maria Pypelinckx, Peter's mother
Tobias Verhaeght, Rubens's first teacher
Adam van Noort, Peter's teacher
Otto van Veen, Peter's teacher
Peter Paul Rubens was born on June 28, 1577 in Siegen, Nassau-Dillenburg, Holy Roman Empire (present-day Siegen, Germany) into the family of Jan Rubens, a magistrate of Antwerp, and Maria Pypelinckx, a writer. Peter had six siblings.
In 1568, before Peter's birth, the artist's parents, who lived in Antwerp, left for Cologne to avoid increased religious turmoil and persecution of Protestants during the rule of the Habsburg Netherlands by the Duke of Alba. At the time of Peter's birth, his family lived in Siegen. However, in 1578, they came back to Cologne. Later, in 1589, after his father's death, Peter, together with his mother, settled down in Antwerp.
During his time in Antwerp, Peter received a Renaissance humanist education, studying Latin, Greek and classical literature. After a period of schooling, the young Rubens became a messenger to a noble-woman, Marguerite de Ligne, Countess of Lalaing. By the time he turned fourteen, Rubens had begun studying art under the guidance of Tobias Verhaeght. His other teachers included Adam van Noort and Otto van Veen.
It was in 1598, that Rubens completed his education and, the same year, entered the Guild of St. Luke as an independent master. In his later years, the artist travelled to Italy, where he also studied, with unfailing enthusiasm, the sculptures of antiquity and the paintings of the High Renaissance, especially those of Raphael and Michelangelo.
It's also worth noting, that Rubens received an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge in 1629.
Most of Rubens's youthful works have disappeared or remain unidentified. "The Portrait of a Young Man" (1597) is his earliest dated work.
After completing his education in 1598, Rubens probably continued to work in the studio of van Veen, his teacher, before setting off on a sojourn in Italy in May 1600. The same year, in 1598, Rubens joined the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke as an independent master.
During his time in Italy, Peter lived mainly in Venice and Rome, studying the works of Tintoretto, Titian and those of other artists. Around this time, he painted the altar piece, titled "St. Helena with the True Cross", at the Roman Church of Santa Croce.
After spending a year in Spain, owing to a diplomatic visit, Rubens went back to Italy in 1604 and, during his four-year stay in the country, he lived in Genoa, Mantua and Rome. While in Italy, he produced such works, as "Marchesa Brigida Spinola-Doria" and "Portrait of Maria Serra Pallavicino", among others. Rubens was also commissioned to work on the high altar of Santa Maria church in Vallicella and that constituted one of the most important works in his career.
In 1609, Peter moved to Antwerp due to his mother's ill health. The same year, the Archduke of Austria, Albert VII and Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain made Rubens their court painter. He established his studio in Antwerp, where he taught students and also employed a number of assistants. Some of the notable works of the period include "The Raising of the Cross", "The Descent from the Cross". During that time, Rubens also produced prints of his works in collaboration with a noted publisher, that further enhanced his reputation.
From 1621 onwards, Peter was entrusted with diplomatic duties by the Halsburg rulers from Spain after he had been summoned to Paris by Marie de Medici, the Queen Mother of France, to create paintings, related to her life. Rubens painted the "Marie de Medici Cycle" and was also involved in gathering intelligence in his role as a diplomat. He also went to England in his role as a diplomat.
Philip IV of Spain entrusted Peter with even more diplomatic duties after raising him to the rank of nobility. During his stay in Madrid in 1628, the artist created a copy of Titian's "Fall of Man". Subsequently, he travelled to London, United Kingdom, and created one of his most notable works, titled "Peace and War". He had become an influential artist and a painter of rare quality by then.
Around 1630, Rubens went back to Antwerp and spent most of his time, completing commissions, like the paintings on the ceiling of Banqueting House in Whitehall. During this decade, Rubens produced works, like "The Feast of Venus", "The Three Graces" and "The Judgement of Paris", that were commissioned by the Spanish royal family.
Though Rubens hoped, on returning to Antwerp, to withdraw from political life, he was obliged to act once more as confidential agent for the Infanta in the frustrating and unsuccessful negotiations with the Dutch. After that, he succeeded in being released from diplomatic employment.
The period from 1630 to 1640 witnessed some of the most exuberant works of the master. His works of that time include "Garden of Love" and "Feast of Venus".
Besides, during the last decade of his life, Rubens continued to carry out monumental commissions. For Philip IV's hunting lodge outside Madrid, the Torre de la Parada, Rubens painted more than 60 oil sketches, inspired by Ovid's "Metamorphoses", in which he reinterpreted the love, conflicts and passion of ancient gods and mortals.
Despite frequent incapacitating attacks of "gout", which was probably arthritis, Rubens continued to accept a wide range of commissions. In 1638, he designed a triumphal carriage in the form of a ship to celebrate the Spanish naval victory over the Dutch forces at Calloo.
Peter Paul Rubens was the greatest exponent of Baroque painting's dynamism, vitality and sensuous exuberance. Despite the fact, that his masterpieces include portraits and landscapes, Rubens is perhaps best known for his religious and mythological compositions. As the impresario of vast decorative programs, he presided over the most famous painter's studio in Europe. His powers of invention were matched by extraordinary energy and versatility.
Besides, Peter's pleasant, affable demeanor and shrewd business sense enabled him to be the most effective diplomat.
In 1630, Rubens was knighted by Charles I for his achievements. The following year, in 1631, he was knighted by Philip IV. Peter was the only painter so honoured by the kings of both England and Spain.
It's worth mentioning, that, at a Sotheby's auction, on July 10, 2002, Rubens's painting, "Massacre of the Innocents", rediscovered not long before, was sold for $76.2 million to Lord Thomson.
Battle of the Amazons
Honeysuckle Bower
Adam and Eve
The Regent Militant: The Victory at Jülich
Samson and Delilah
Assumption of the Virgin Mary
The Origin of Milky Way
Portrait of a Man, Possibly an Architect or Geographer
Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt
Aeneas And His Family Departing From Troy
Charles V in Armour
Democritus
Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma
Allegory on Emperor Charles as Ruler of Vast Realms
Madonna and Child with the Donors Alexandre Goubeau and his Wife Anne Antoni
Hero and Leander
The Circumcision
The Fall of Phaeton
Portrait of Maria Serra Pallavicino
The Trinity Adored by the Duke of Mantua and His Family
St. Gregory the Great with Saints
The Lamentation
The Judgement of Paris
Esther and Ahasverus
Equestrian Portrait of Giancarlo Doria
Venus at her Toilet
Virgin and Child Adored by Angels
St. Domitilla with St. Nereus and St. Achilleus
The Madonna della Vallicella Adored by Seraphim and Cherubim
Landscape with the Ruins of Mount Palatine in Rome
The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian
St. George with Martyrs Maurus, Papianus, Domitilla, Nerus and Achilleus
Susanna and the Elders
Mulay Ahmad
The Entombment
The Abduction of Ganymede
Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus
Albert VII, Governor of the Southern Provinces
The Elevation of the Cross
The Fall of Man
Massacre of the Innocents
Saturn
Prometheus Bound
The Disembarkation at Marseilles
The Three Graces
Consequences of War
Lion Hunt
David Slaying Goliath
The Garden of Love
Portrait of Isabella Brant
Immaculate Conception
Portrait of Haspar Hevarts
Rubens's father was a Calvinist. However, Peter was baptised at St. Peter's Church in Cologne and raised as a Catholic. Besides, he became one of the leading voices of the Catholic Counter-Reformation style of painting and religion figured prominently in much of his work.
Quotations:
"I have heard, that you have found the secret of engraving on copper on white ground, as Elsheimer did. To bite the plate with acid, he covered the copper with a white paste. He then drew with the point down to the metal, which is of reddish color, and it looked as if he were drawing with red crayon on white paper. I cannot remember the composition of this write paste, although he communicated it to me".
"I'm just a simple man, standing alone with my old brushes, asking God for inspiration".
"White is poison to a picture: use it only in highlights".
"I am by nature and inclination a peaceful man, the sworn enemy to disputes, lawsuits and quarrels both public and private".
Peter Paul Rubens was a highly intelligent man, who spoke seven languages. With his intellect, education and wealth, it is hardly surprising, that Peter was a confident individual.
Quotes from others about the person
"Peter Paul Rubens, Lord of Steen, who among the other gifts, by which he marvelously excelled in the knowledge of ancient history, merited being called the Apollos not only of our, but of all time, who made himself a pathway to the friendship of kings and princes." - Jan Gevaerts
"Rubens avoided painting in such a way, that the color sank in. The luminous clarity of his work was proof of the excellence of his technique. His colors had so much brilliance and binding medium within themselves, that, like van Eyck's pictures, they had a gloss without needing to be varnished." - Max Doerner
Rubens married Isabella Brant, who belonged to an influential family in Antwerp, on October 3, 1609. The couple gave birth to three children. Isabella died 17 years after their marriage.
In 1630, Rubens married 16-year-old Helena Fourment, who happened to be the niece of his first wife, Isabella. Helena was to inspire some of the most personal and poignant portraits of Rubens's later career. The couple had five children. Rubens's youngest child was born eight months after his death.
Jan Rubens (March 13, 1530 - March 1, 1587) was a Flemish magistrate of Antwerp. In the late 1560's - early 1570's, Jan was the legal adviser and lover of Anna of Saxony, the second wife of William I of Orange, living in her court in Siegen and fathering her daughter, Christine, who was born in 1571.
Maria Pypelinckx (March 20, 1538 - October 19, 1608) was a writer from the Southern Netherlands.
Helena Fourment (April 11, 1614 - July 15, 1673) was mostly known as the second wife of Peter Paul Rubens. She was the subject of a few portraits by Rubens and also modeled for other religious and mythological paintings. Peter and Helena's marriage was as fruitful as it was blissful, producing five children.
Isabella Brant (1591 - July 15, 1626) was mostly known as the first wife of Peter Paul Rubens.
Tobias Verhaecht (1561 - 1631) was a landscape painter and the first teacher of Pieter Paul Rubens.
Adam van Noort (1562 - 1641) was a painter and draughtsman and one of the teachers of Peter Paul Rubens.
Otto van Veen (1556 - May 6, 1629) was a painter, draughtsman and humanist active primarily in Antwerp and Brussels. He was one of the teachers of Peter Paul Rubens.
