Enlarge

Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640)
Rubens, His Wife, Helena Fourment, and One of Their Children
Oil on wood; 80 1/4 x 62 1/4 in. (203.8 x 158.1 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, in honor of Sir John Pope-Hennessy, 1981 (1981.238)

Curator Comment

Two works in the Museum's great collection of paintings by Rubens are personal works, both of them given by Charles and Jayne Wrightsman. Portrait of a Woman, Probably Susanna Lunden (given in 1976) almost certainly depicts the older sister of Helena Fourment, who is very much the heroine of the present family portrait. Rubens had known the seven Fourment sisters for some time before he married Helena in December 1630, since their eldest brother, Daniel, was married to the sister of Rubens's first wife, Isabella Brandt (d. 1626).

There is some uncertainty about the identity of the child. Scholars have argued in favor of each of the four children born to Helena during Rubens's lifetime (a fifth was born eight months after he died). The Museum's earlier identification of the child as Peter Paul (b. March 1637) has been doubted because that would date the picture quite late and the parents would be older than they appear. The child may be the firstborn Clara Joanna (b. January 1632) or Frans (b. July 1633). The latter might have been presented without his sister if the portrait were intended to celebrate not only Helena's role as mother but also her provision of a male heir. Less open to question is Rubens's use of a theme he had treated memorably elsewhere, the Garden of Love, to emphasize the happiness (known also from several letters) of his marriage to the young and beautiful Helena.

Walter Liedtke, curator, Department of European Paintings