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

Landscape with a Rainbow

c. 1638
Oil on panel, 136 x 236 cm
Wallace Collection, London

Rubens painted this picture at the end of his life when he was living in his country residence at Het Steen. The contrast between the two halves of the composition, a sunlit prosperity on the left and a gloomy wood on the right, suggest an analogy with the Last Judgment, the rainbow representing the Arc of the Covenant.

The late landscapes by Rubens, such as this work, with their atmospheric appearance, often in subdued golden light of an early summer evening, make an elegiac impression. This makes Rubens come close to the spirit of Titian who exercised such a profound influence on his other late work.