The Low Countries. Jaargang 12

Now (or Never)... Rubens

Pieter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) could never have complained of a dearth of attention. Indeed, his talent never did go unnoticed. From an early age he was able to convince rich art-lovers of his excellence and eventually had so many commissions that he was obliged to establish a well-organised studio where several artists worked under him. Even after his death he remained in favour with the public. So it is all the more remarkable that it was not until 1977 that the public at large was able to gain an overview of the work of this master of the baroque. In that ‘Rubens Year’ a special exhibition was organised in Rubens' home city of Antwerp.

Paul Bril and Peter Paul Rubens, Landscape with Psyche, 1610. Canvas, 93 × 128 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

In 2004, however, the Rubens-lover was to be pampered by a plethora of exhibitions in both Europe and America. To start with, in spring enthusiasts could visit Peter Paul Rubens, a Touch of Brilliance at Somerset House in London, where they could admire scores of the master's preparatory sketches for oil paintings. What made this particularly interesting is that the end results of a number of these sketches have been lost; as is the case, for example, with the 39 ceiling paintings that Rubens made from 1620 onwards for a Jesuit church in Antwerp that burned to the ground in 1718.

The most important exhibition is currently (from 6 March to 14 June) on show in Lille, as part of ‘Lille 2004 - Cultural Capital of Europe’. It seeks to give a complete overview of the wide-ranging oeuvre of the artist. Something in the region of 160 works are on display in the Palais des Beaux-Arts. Along with religious, historical, mythological and allegorical paintings, portraits and decorative items there are also cartoons, tapestries, sketches and drawings. The artistic milieus in which Rubens moved and worked form the main guiding principle of the exhibition. Lille's choice of Rubens is understandable. It

[p. 305]

Peter Paul Rubens, Esther before Ahasuereus. 1620. Oil on panel, 50.1 × 47.2 cm. Courtauld Institute Gallery, London. This is one of the sketches for the ceiling paintings that Rubens made from 1620 onwards for a Jesuit church in Antwerp that burned to the ground in 1718.

is not only that the city seeks in this way to stress its Flemish nature, but Rubens himself worked for quite a number of Northern French patrons and works by him hang in the region's most important museums (Lille, Valenciennes, Arras, etc.). And let us not forget that no fewer than four Depositions from the Cross by Rubens are to be found in Northern France (Lille, Arras, Valenciennes and Saint-Omer).

Although no stranger to Lille, Rubens really only felt at home in Antwerp. That city had for some time been intending to turn the spotlight on its most famous resident, but had originally meant to do so in 2005. However, because Lille, as Cultural Capital of Europe, wished to honour Rubens, the decision was taken to work together under the motto ‘Rediscover P.P. Rubens’. The most important aim of the entire project is to ‘update’ the popular idea of Rubens - to show that he was more than a painter of generously proportioned women. To this end Antwerp is able to draw on a very extensive Rubens collection, spread over a number of churches and museums; and for this Rubens Year the collection will be supplemented by major works from abroad. Here it is not only a question of works by Rubens himself but also of works from his own art collection - for the master was a passionate collector. Among the artists he admired were Titian, Tintorello and Veronese. His Flemish predecessors were also in evidence, as were such German artists as Holbein and Elsheimer as well as Bruegel the Elder - and it is probable that no-one had as many works by Adriaan Brouwer at home as he did. In the Rubens House, the small palace that Rubens had built in the centre of the city, this collection is partially reconstructed in A House

[p. 306]

full of Art. Rubens as Art Collector. Rubens was also a passionate book-lover, and his library was one of the largest in Antwerp. A selection of books from this library is on display at the Plantin-Moretus Museum, once home to the printing house of Christopher Plantin, his son-in-law Jan Moretus and grandson Balthazar Moretus, who was a friend of Rubens. Later in the year, an exhibition at the same museum will be devoted to Rubens and Book Illustrations (12 June to 12 September 2004). During the same period, other exhibitions will focus on Rubens in Black and White. Reproduction Graphics 1650-1680 (Rockox House) and Copyright Rubens. Rubens and Graphic art at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts; the latter will be travelling to Quebec in October 2004.

Brussels' Royal Museum of Fine Arts is making an important contribution to the Lille exhibition by loaning works by Rubens, although in exchange it is getting a number of paintings from the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille. Together with works from other museums and its own considerable collection, these form the exhibition From Delacroix to Courbet. Rubens under Discussion (from 6 March to 13 June 2004), which examines Rubens' influence on the modernisation of painting at the turn of the nineteenth century.

The exhibition The Invention of Landscape. Flemish Landscape Painting from Patinir to Rubens (8 May to 1 August 2004 at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts) will certainly be one of the highlights of the Rubens Year. This exhibition has already been on show at the Villa Hügel in Essen in 2003, where it was visited by 140,000 people, and at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (until 12 April 2004). It shows how in Antwerp, in the course of the sixteenth century, the foundation was laid for the renewal in landscape painting which culminates in Rubens' baroque landscapes. At the end of the eighteenth century, landscapes by Rubens became real collector's items in England. Thomas Gainsborough, for one, was an admirer, and John Constable proclaimed in 1833: ‘In no other branch of art is Rubens greater than in landscape.’

For the ordinary mortal this array of exhibitions is amply sufficient. Afterwards, he can quietly retire and enjoy the various catalogues. And if you have missed the exhibitions in Lille or Antwerp you can always go to New York (and then to Vienna) for the most comprehensive overview of Rubens' drawings. At this exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art you can, for example, discover the beautiful sheets showing Hélène Fourment and Rubens' children (1 November 2004 to 9 January 2005). Or visit the Bruce Museum of Arts and Sciences (Greenwich, NY, 17 September 2004 to 2 January 2005) (and then the Berkeley Art Museum and the Cincinnati Art Museum) for an overview of sketches for oil-paintings.

This outline is still incomplete. In short: anyone who fails to visit a Rubens exhibition in 2004 is either living on another planet or is a real Rubens-hater; and for the latter it's going to be a very trying year.

Dirk van Assche

Translated by John Irons

www.rubens2004.be

www.lille2004.fr

www.exporubens.com