Portrait of Rubens' Wife

About this artwork

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,...

Art Historical Context

This charming 17th-century Flemish portrait depicts Helena Fourment, the second wife of the renowned Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). The couple married in 1630, when Rubens was 53 and the youthful Helena just 16; she became a frequent muse in his own sensual, vibrant paintings, embodying the opulence of Flemish Baroque art. Created by an unidentified artist, this work is a testament to Rubens's immense popularity—his originals were so admired that contemporaries eagerly copied them, capturing his wife's poised elegance and rich attire. Paintings like this not only circulated in Europe but captivated 19th-century American collectors, finding their way into prestigious collections. Magazines such as *Harper’s Weekly* fueled fascination with Rubens's life and family, with a 1877 article praising Helena as a "proud, stately lady in rich costume" whose "languid complacency" shines through in this very portrait. Now part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collection, thanks to the bequest of Mabel Johnson Langhorne, it offers a window into how celebrity and artistry intertwined across centuries, bridging Flemish mastery with transatlantic tastes.