Portraits (until 1629)
by Peter Paul RUBENS

In his early portraits in Italy, Rubens modelled himself on the local artistic tradition. As in his history pieces, here, too, he found his starting point in the work of the great sixteenth-century Venetians. Explicitly Venetian are the two large equestrian portraits Rubens made in his Italian period. The fine full-length portraits of ladies from the highest social circles in Genoa, painted around 1606-07, possess an even more pronouncedly Venetian stamp. Their portraits have none of the courtly formality that was so characteristic of the Low Countries tradition of portraiture. Once back in Antwerp in 1608, Rubens adapted himself again to the Netherlandish tradition. Rubens group portraits of these years are notable for their severe structure.

Up to about 1620 Rubens's portraits — like all his work — continued to be marked by an emphatic plasticity and a smooth, impasto execution which allowed the painter to depict the texture of skin and clothing with conviction and sensitivity. In the later years of the second decade, however, Rubens's portraits started to make a more supple and lifelike impression, which gives them a spontaneity and directness which they had not possessed since his years in Italy.


Preview Picture Data Info
Portrait of a Man, Possibly an Architect or Geographer
1597
Oil on copper, 22 x 15 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York


Duke of Lerma
c. 1603
Oil on canvas, 283 x 200 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid


Portrait of Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria
1606
Oil on canvas, 152 x 99 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington


Equestrian Portrait of Giancarlo Doria
c. 1606
Oil on canvas, 265 x 188 cm
Galleria Nazional della Liguria, Genoa


Portrait of Maria Serra Pallavicino
1606
Oil on canvas, 241 x 140 cm
Private collection


Portrait of Kaspar Scioppius
c. 1606
Oil on canvas, 116 x 88 cm
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence


Self-Portrait in a Circle of Friends from Mantua
-
Oil on canvas, 78 x 101 cm
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne


Christoffel Plantin
-
Oil on canvas
Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp


The Artist and His First Wife, Isabella Brant, in the Honeysuckle Bower
1609-10
Oil on canvas, 178 x 136,5 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich


The Four Philosophers
1611-12
Oil on canvas, 164 x 139 cm
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence


Portrait of a Young Girl
1615-16
Oil on canvas, 37 x 27 cm
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna


Boy with Bird
c. 1616
Oil on panel, 49 x 40 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin


Portrait of Jan Vermoelen
1616
Oil on panel, 126 x 96 cm
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna


Portrait of Nicolas de Respaigne
1616-18
Oil on canvas, 206 x 120 cm
Staatliche Museen, Kassel


Portrait of Lady Arundel with her Train
1620
Oil on canvas
Alte Pinakothek, Munich


Portrait of Infanta Clara Eugenia, Governess of the Netherlands
1620
Oil on canvas, 116 x 96 cm
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence


Marie de Médici, Queen of France
c. 1622
Oil on canvas, 130 x 108 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid


Portrait of Anne of Austria
1621-25
Oil on canvas, 85 x 37 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris


Matthaeus Yrsselius, Abbot of Sint-Michiel's Abbey in Antwerp
c. 1624
Oil on oak panel, 120 x 103 cm
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen


Portrait of George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham
c. 1625
Oil on canvas, 65 x 50 cm
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence


Portrait of a Woman
-
Oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille


Portrait of a Chambermaid
c. 1625
Oil on panel, 64 x 48 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg


The Straw Hat
c. 1625
Oil on wood, 79 x 55 cm
National Gallery, London


Isabella Brandt (?)
c. 1626
Oil on oak, 98 x 72 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin


Isabella Brandt
c. 1626
Oil on canvas, 86 x 62 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence


Portrait of a Woman, Probably Susanna Fourment
1625-27
Oil on wood, 77 x 60 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York


Albert and Nicolaas Rubens
1626-27
Oil on wood, 157 x 93 cm
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna


Self-Portrait with a Hat
1623-25
Oil on wood, 85 x 61 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence


Self-Portrait
1628
Oil on canvas
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence


Portrait of Jan Gaspar Gevartius
c. 1628
Oil on panel, 119 x 98 cm
Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp


Portrait of Ambrogio Spinola
1625-28
Oil on oak, 117 x 85 cm
Národní Galerie, Prague


Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara
1600s
Oil on canvas, 127 x 98 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York


Charles V in Armour
1603
Oil on canvas, 119 x 93 cm
Private collection


Charles V and the Empress Isabella
-
Oil on canvas, 114 x 166 cm
Collection of the Dukes of Alba, Madrisd



Summary of works by Rubens
Religious themes
until 1616 | 1617-20 | 1620s | 1630s
Altarpieces in Antwerp Cathedral | Biblical scenes
Mythological themes
until 1614 | 1614-29 | 1630s
Large royal projects | Allegorical themes
Portraits
until 1629 | 1630s
Miscellaneous
Landscapes | Hunting and other themes
Graphic works | Architecture



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