Rubens & Women
Exhibit background
Rubens & Women is a major exhibition of the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Uniting over 40 paintings and drawings from throughout the artist's career, the exhibition is the first to challenge the popular assumption that Rubens painted only one type of woman, providing a more nuanced view of the varied and important place occupied by women, both real and imagined, in his world.
Featuring masterpieces from international and private collections, many of which will be seen in the UK for the first time, this landmark exhibition reconsiders one of art history's most influential figures.
“Rubens may be famous for making pictures of women, but it was the women who made Rubens the master.”
I thought it would be interesting to see how women were portrayed by a famous male artist and learn about their influence on him and his works.
I visited the Dulwich Picture Gallery for the Berthe Morisot exhibit before and enjoyed the venue, the calm, and the layout of the exhibit space. It really makes you feel like you’re on a journey through the artist’s work, despite not knowing anything about them.
My highlights
The layout of the final painting, The Birth of the Milky Way, draws you in completely. The dark background of the wall paired with the gold frame and soft lighting emphasises the impression of looking through a (galactic) window, into the actual birth of the galaxy. It also helps that there’s a (very comfy) bench on which you can sit and really take in the piece from a lower angle.
I went in with very minimal expectations, only having heard of Rubens briefly in an art history class when I was 14 (and honestly I wasn’t paying too much attention then). I was pleasantly surprised to find myself properly drawn in to even the most minute details (like how he used white chalk in his sketches to showcase how light would fall on the subject, even in draft-mode).
The exhibit offered a window into not only Rubens’ work but also the historical and political circumstances of the time.
Favourite pieces
Venus, Mars and Cupid
The Birth of the Milky Way
The Lamentation (not on display at the Dulwich Picture Gallery but discussed by Jennifer Scott and on display at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It tells the story through women and the world of grief around the dead Christ, highlighting different ways of expressing crying in painting.
Curator talk
Following the exhibit, I attended a talk by Jennifer Scott, Director of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, on Rubens and his relationship with the women in his life and how they influenced his work. Some key highlights:
His use of women’s naked bodies initially alienated him as objectifying the women, however a closer look at his personal life indicates the opposite: he was in love with his first wife, Isabella Brant, and was deeply affected by the death of his mother - both events are documented in his correspondence as well as in in the faces he painted
The face in Study of a Seated Woman (The Virgin) is that of Isabella
His sketch of his daughter shows the close resemblance to her mother
Italy’s impact on Rubens is felt across his work, especially in his sculptures and sketches of sculptures. He was inspired by Rafael, looking at the epitome of classical Roman and Greek art. He saw the Crouching Venus in Mantua and then under Charles I in England (look for the bangle on Venus in his paintings). You can also see where he draws the the back of what can’t be seen in real life based on Michelangelo’s Medici tombs sculptures. Rubens’ two studies of a female nude from behind are inspired by the Crouching Venus.
Rubens seamlessly incorporated his politics and his personal life together, thanks to Isabel, Infanta of Spain. She continued to rule the Netherlands on her own after her husband’s death and empowered Rubens’ reputation in European courts. She made him court painter after his return from Italy, but he got to stay in Antwerp and not Brussels so he could have unlimited assistants. This was technically limited by the artist guild in Antwerp but not for the court painter, which allowed him to work on many more pieces than the role originally allowed for.