RUBENS, Peter Paul
(b. 1577, Siegen, d. 1640, Antwerpen)

Helene Fourment with a Carriage

1639
Oil on canvas, 195 x 132 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

This formal portrait is probably the last known portrait of his wife by Rubens. On the steps of their opulent house in Antwerp, wearing a gorgeous black dress in Spanish fashion, she is with Frans about to step into a carriage drawn by two horses, a symbol of matrimonial harmony.