The Horses of Peter Paul Rubens

Peter Paul Rubens

Probably born on June the 28th 1577 in Siegen, Germany– Died in Antwerp, Belgium in 30 May 1640

Peter Paul Rubens was a religious seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, who painted in the Baroque style most known for movement, and color. He is well-known for his portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological creatures and people. Religion is also shown in many of his paintings.

Rubens was born in Siegen, Westphalia, Germany to Jan Rubens and Maria Pypelincks. His parents fled to Cologne, Germany in 1568, after religious turmoil during the rule of the Spanish controlled Netherlands. In 1589, two years after his father’s death, Rubens moved with his mother to Antwerp, where he was raised as a Catholic.

In Antwerp, Rubens studied Latin and classical literature. By fourteen, he began apprenticing with painter Tobias Verhaeght. Most of his training involved copying earlier artists’ works, including woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Younger and other engravings. Rubens completed his education in 1598, at when he became a member of the Guild of St. Luke as an independent master artist.

Later, Ruben’s made his own large art studio in Antwerp, where he painted many paintings that were highly sought after by nobles and art collectors. Rubens was also knighted by both Philip IV, king of Spain, and Charles I, king of England.

In 1630, four years after the death of his first wife Isabella , who he had three children with, the 53-year-old painter married his wife’s niece, the 16-year-old Hélène Fourment. She is the subject of many of his paintings, including Religion The Feast of Venus (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). He had five children with her. In 1635, Rubens bought an estate outside of Antwerp, where he spent much of his time. Rubens died from heart failure on 30 May 1640.