Rubens & Women

Posted by Barbara on November 20, 2023 in Art, Blog, Exhibition | 2 comments

To the Dulwich Picture Gallery (I’ve always wanted to start a piece of writing in this style), which has a remarkable exhibition Rubens & Women. It features 40 paintings and drawings from the artist’s career, and it manages extremely well to go beyond the vivid images of fleshy nude women typically associated with the artist, and tell a much more nuanced story.

The exhibition challenges the popular assumption that Rubens painted only one type of woman; he actually painted more portraits of his wives and children than almost any other painter, even Rembrandt. What it does do is reveal the varied and important place occupied by women, both real and imagined, in his world.

We learn how Rubens’s relationships with women nourished his creativity and career – from the role played by his female patrons and family members to his profound faith, artistic beliefs, and great loves.

A painting of his eldest daughter by his first wife is delicate, gentle and compelling – the child died aged 12. On the next wall another painting provides a dramatic contrast; it is a portrait of Marchesa Maria Serra Pallavicino made in 1606, possibly to aid Rubens’s employer, the Duke of Mantua, settle a debt. The scale of the work is in a totally different style and exudes a sumptuous luxury.

Another approach can be found in the mythological narratives that Rubens loved to paint. He was inspired by the writings of Ovid and Virgil; a painting in the gallery depicts the goddesses Venus, Juno and Diana with clarity and exquisite colour. The exhibition notes that Rubens was a successful diplomat as well as a brilliant painter, and the works he produced while carrying out peace negotiations on behalf of the Archduchess Isabel Clara Eugenia in the 1600s portray these heroines as symbols of peace and hope.

There is a beautiful oil sketch of Venus Mourning Adonis; he has been fatally wounded while hunting and she crouches to cradle him. The sorrow she is feeling is almost palpable.  

When Isabel’s husband Archduke Albert died, she adopted the dress of a Poor Clare nun, wearing it for the rest of her life to symbolise mourning and faith.  Rubens painted her in her habit, choosing to illustrate her piety and strength rather than the power she wielded.

Rubens’s travels in Italy helped develop his work painting the female nude. He studied ancient sculptures, memorising their forms and postures. Nevertheless he stated that his paintings should not ‘smell of stone’. Instead, he managed to create life-like images of nude women whose physical presence seems to leap from the canvas. The exhibition features a 2^nd century statue of a Roman goddess, portrayed in the rotunda within the gallery and set against mirrors to achieve a 360-degree view of the work. The statue provides the anatomical detail, but Rubens makes this come to life in his paintings. He was also influenced by Michelangelo, whose nudes were noted for being masculine in appearance – Rubens’s women are strong and well muscled.

This exhibition, perhaps because it is hung in a series of small rooms in the Dulwich Picture Galley, manages to allow the viewer a more intimate understanding of this extraordinary master of art and colour.  The humanity of the artist shines through and you leave with a sense of joy as well as awe.