,,masterpieces ,,in ,,colour ,,edited ,,by ,t4 ,,leman ,,hare ,,rubens ,,in ,,the ,,same ,,series ,,artist4 ,,author4 ,,velazquez4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,reynolds4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,turner4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,romney4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,greuze4 ,,alys ,,eyre ,,macklin4 ,,botticelli4 ,,henry ,b4 ,,binns4 ,,rossetti4 ,,lucien ,,pissarro4 ,,bellini4 ,,george ,,hay4 ,,fra ,,angelico4 ,,james ,,mason4 ,,rembrandt4 ,,josef ,,israels4 ,,leighton4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,raphael4 ,,paul ,g4 ,,konody4 ,,holman ,,hunt4 ,,mary ,e4 ,,coleridge4 ,,titian4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,millais4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,carlo ,,dolci4 ,,george ,,hay4 ,,gainsborough4 ,,max ,,rothschild4 ,,tintoretto4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,luini4 ,,james ,,mason4 ,,franz ,,hals4 ,,edgcumbe ,,staley4 ,,van ,,dyck4 ,,percy ,m4 ,,turner4 ,,leonardo ,,da ,,vinci4 ,m4 ,w4 ,,brockwell4 ,,rubens4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,whistler4 ,t4 ,,martin ,,wood4 ,in ,preparation ,,vig,e ,,le ,,brun4 ,c4 ,,haldane ,,macfall4 ,,burne-,,jones4 ,a4 ,,lys ,,baldry4 ,,holbein4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,j4 ,f4 ,,millet4 ,,percy ,m4 ,,turner4 ,,memlinc4 ,w4 ,h4 ,,james ,,weale4 ,,albert ,d,,rer4 ,,herbert ,,furst4 ,,fragonard4 ,c4 ,,haldane ,,macfall4 ,,constable4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,raeburn4 ,,james ,l4 ,,caw4 ,,chardin4 ,,paul ,g4 ,,konody4 ,,boucher4 ,c4 ,,haldane ,,macfall4 ,,watteau4 ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind4 ,,murillo4 ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan4 ,,and ,,others4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,i4--,,elizabeth ,,of ,,france1 ,,daughter ,,of ,,henry ,,iv4 ,frontispiece 7,in the ,louvre7 ,the ,princess is seen to great advantage in this fine portrait4 ,the fair complexion of the sitter is remarkably preserved1 the white ruff1 the jewels1 and the gold brocade are very cleverly handled4 ,another portrait of ,princess ,elizabeth1 painted in ,madrid1 may now be seen in ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,rubens ,,by ,s4 ,l4 ,,bensusan ,,illustrated ,,with ,,eight ,,reproductions ,,in ,,colour ,illustration ,,london3 ,t4 ,c4 ,e4 ,c4 ,,jack ,,new ,,york3 ,,frederick ,a4 ,,stokes ,,co4 ,,contents ,page ,i4 ,introduction #aa ,,ii4 ,the ,painter's ,life #ba ,,iii4 ,second ,period #ce ,,iv4 ,the ,later ,years #de ,v4 ,the ,painter's ,art #ee ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,plate ,i4 ,elizabeth of ,france1 ,daughter of ,henry ,,iv4 ,frontispiece ,in the ,louvre ,page ,,ii4 ,christ la ,paille #ad ,at ,antwerp ,museum ,,iii4 ,the ,four ,philosophers #bd ,in the ,pitti ,palace1 ,florence ,,iv4 ,isabella ,brandt #cd ,in the ,wallace ,collection ,v4 ,le ,chapeau de ,paille #dj ,in the ,national ,gallery ,,vi4 ,the ,descent from the ,cross #ej ,in the ,cathedral1 ,antwerp ,,vii4 ,henry ,,iv4 leaving for a ,campaign #fj ,in the ,louvre ,,viii4 ,the ,virgin and the ,holy ,innocents #gj ,in the ,louvre ,illustration ,i ,,introduction ,the name of ,peter ,paul ,rubens is written so large in the history of ,european art1 that all the efforts of detractors have failed to stem the tide of appreciation that flows towards it4 ,rubens was a great master in nearly every pictorial sense of the term2 and if at times the coarseness and lack of restraint of his era were reflected upon his canvas1 we must blame the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries rather than the man who worked through some of their most interesting years1 and at worst was no more than a realist4 ,there may have been seasons when he elected to attempt more than any man could hope to achieve4 ,there were times when he set himself to work deliberately to express certain scenes1 romantic or mythological1 in a fashion that must have startled his contemporaries and gives offence to-day2 but to do justice to the painter1 we must consider his work as a whole1 we must set the best against the worst4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,ii4--,,christ ,,la ,,paille 7,at ,antwerp ,museum7 ,whatever the ,biblical story ,rubens chose1 he handled it not only with skill1 but with a certain sense of conviction that is the more remarkable in one who owed no allegiance to the ,church4 ,there is fine feeling and deep reverence in the ,christ la ,paille1 in addition to the dramatic feeling that accompanied all his religious pictures4 ,the colouring1 though very bold1 is most effective2 in the hands of a less skilled painter such a display of primary colouring might well have seemed violent or even vulgar4 ,consider the vast range of achievements that embraced landscape1 portraiture1 and decorative work1 giving to every subject such quality of workmanship and skill in composition1 as none save a very few of the world's great masters have been able to convey to canvas4 ,and let it be remembered1 too1 that ,rubens was not only a painter1 he was a statesman and a diplomat2 and amid cares and anxieties that might well have filled the life of any smaller man1 he found time to paint countless pictures in every style1 and to move steadily forward along the road to mastery1 so that his second period is better than the first1 in which he was1 if the expression may be used with propriety1 finding himself4 ,the third period1 which saw the painting of the great works that hang in ,antwerp's ,cathedral and ,museum to-day1 and is represented in our own ,national ,gallery and ,wallace ,collection1 was the best of all4 ,passing from his labours as he did at a comparatively early age1 for ,rubens was but sixty-three when he died1 he did not suffer the slow decline of powers that has so often accompanied men who reached their greatest achievements in ripe middle age and shrink to mere shadows of a name4 ,he did not reach his supreme mastery of colour until he had lived for half a century or more1 and the pictures that have the greatest blots upon them from the point of view of the twentieth century1 were painted before he reached the summit of his powers4 ,it is perhaps unfortunate that ,rubens painted far too many works to admit of a truly representative collection in any city or gallery4 ,the best are widely scattered2 some are in the ,prado in ,madrid1 others are in ,belgium1 some are in ,florence4 ,holland has a goodly collection1 while ,antwerp boasts among many masterpieces ,the ,passing of ,christ1 ,the ,adoration of the ,magi1 ,the ,prodigal ,son1 and ,the ,christ la ,paille4 ,munich1 ,brussels1 ,dresden1 ,vienna1 and other cities have famous examples of both ripe and early art that must be seen before the master can be judged fairly and without prejudice4 ,it is impossible to found an opinion not likely to be shaken1 upon the work to be seen in ,london or in ,paris1 where the ,louvre holds many of the painter's least attractive works4 ,it may be said that ,peter ,paul ,rubens is represented in every gallery of importance throughout ,europe1 that the number of his acknowledged works runs into four figures1 and that there are very few without some definite and attractive aspect of treatment and composition that goes far to atone for the occasional shortcomings of taste4 ,for his generation ,rubens sufficed amply4 ,he was a man of so many gifts that he would have made his mark had he never set brush to a canvas1 although time has blotted out the recollection of his diplomatic achievements or relegated them to obscure chronicles and manuscripts that are seldom disturbed save by scholars4 ,to nine out of ten he is known only as a painter1 and his fame rests upon the work that chances to have given his critics their first view and most lasting impression of his varied achievements4 ,it may be said that among those who care least for ,rubens1 and are quite satisfied to condemn him for the coarseness with which he treated certain subjects1 there are many who are prompt to declare that in matters of art the treatment is of the first importance and the subject is but secondary4 ,however1 ,rubens is hardly in need of an apologist4 ,his best work makes him famous in any company1 and there is so much of it that the rest may be disregarded4 ,moreover1 we must not forget that the types he portrayed from time to time with such amazing frankness really existed all round him4 ,he took them as he found them1 just as the earlier painters of the ,renaissance took their ,madonnas from the peasant girls they found working in the fields1 or travelling to the cities on saint days and at times of high festival4 ,many a ,renaissance ,madonna enshrined on canvas for the adoration of the devout could remove the least suspicion of sanctity from herself1 if she did but raise her downcast eyes or smile1 as doubtless she smiled in the studio wherein she was immortalised4 ,for the artist sees a vision beyond the sitter1 and under his brush the sanctification or profanation of a type are matters of simple and rapid accomplishment4 ,if another ,rubens were to arise to-day1 he could find sitters in plenty who would respond to the treatment that his prototype has made familiar4 ,perhaps to the men and women with whom he was thrown in contact1 these creations were interesting inasmuch as they afforded a glimpse into an under-world of which they knew little or nothing4 ,the offence of certain pictures is increased by the fact that1 when ,rubens painted them1 he had not attained to the supreme mastership over colour1 and inspiration of composition1 that came to him in later life4 ,but in a brief review of the artist's life and work enough has been told of the aspects upon which his detractors love to dilate4 ,it is time to turn to his brilliant and varied career1 and note the incidents that have the greatest interest or the deepest influence upon his art work4 ,,ii ,,the ,,painter',s ,,life ,peter ,paul ,rubens was born in ,a4,d4 #aegg1 at ,siegen in ,germany1 where his father1 ,dr4 ,john ,rubens1 a man of great attainments1 was living in disgrace arising out of an old intrigue with the dissolute wife of ,william the ,silent4 ,but for the necessity of shielding the reputation of the ,house of ,orange1 there seems no doubt that ,john ,rubens would have paid the death penalty for his offence4 ,it is curious to reflect that1 had he done so1 ,peter ,paul would have been lost to the world1 for the intrigue would seem to have occurred in the neighbourhood of the year #aegj1 while ,peter ,paul was not born until seven years later4 ,when the child was one year old the ,rubens family was allowed to return to ,cologne1 where ,john ,rubens had gone on leaving ,antwerp in #aefh4 ,here ,peter ,paul and his elder brother1 ,philip1 were brought up1 in utter ignorance of the misfortunes that had befallen their father1 whose death was recorded when his famous son was nine or ten years old4 ,after his decease the boys' mother decided to return to ,antwerp1 where her husband in his early days had enjoyed a considerable reputation as a lawyer1 and held civic appointments4 ,although much of the family money must have been lost1 perhaps on account of the fall in values resulting from the terrible war with ,spain1 there would seem to have been enough to enable the widow and her two sons to live in comfort1 if not in luxury4 ,peter ,paul was sent to a good school1 where he made progress and became very popular1 probably because he was strikingly handsome1 considerably gifted1 and very quick to learn4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iii4--,,the ,,four ,,philosophers 7,in the ,pitti ,palace1 ,florence7 ,this picture was probably painted in ,italy4 ,the man sitting behind the table with an open book before him is ,justus ,lipsius the philosopher4 ,to his left is one of his pupils1 and on the right we see ,philip ,rubens1 pen in hand1 and ,peter ,paul himself standing up against a red curtain4 ,at the age of thirteen school-days came to an end1 and the boy became a page in the service of the widowed ,countess of ,lalaing1 whose husband had been one of the governors of ,antwerp4 ,here1 at a very impressionable age1 ,rubens obtained first his acquaintance with and finally his mastery over all the intricacies of courtly etiquette4 ,in quite a short time he became a polished gentleman1 in the sixteenth-century acceptation of that term4 ,but the instinct to study art already developed made the duties of a page seem tiresome and unattractive1 and we learn that the boy importuned his mother to be allowed to study painting4 ,apparently he had shown sufficient promise to justify the request1 and he was placed1 first under an unknown painter named ,verhaecht and then under ,adam van ,noort1 with whom he remained four years before passing to the studio of ,otto van ,veen1 a scholar1 a gentleman1 and a painter of quality4 ,the life here would seem to have developed in ,rubens many of the qualities that were destined to bring him fame and great rewards4 ,by the time he was twenty1 the ,guild of ,st4 ,luke in ,antwerp received him as a member1 and a year later he received an appointment from the city to assist his master in some civic decorations4 ,so the glittering years of his first youth passed1 happily1 prosperously1 and uneventfully1 and when he was no more than twenty-three ,peter ,paul ,rubens turned his steps towards ,italy1 then1 as ,paris is now1 the ,mecca of the pilgrim of the ,arts4 ,if we wish to find some explanation for the splendid colouring that makes the masterpieces of ,rubens the delight of every unprejudiced eye1 we may surely be content to remember that he saw ,venice with the enthusiastic eye of twenty-three in the year #afjj4 ,even to-day when ,venice1 vulgarised to the fullest extent that modern ingenuity can accomplish1 has become no more than a remnant most forlorn of what it was1 it is one of the world's wonder cities4 ,when the seventeenth century was opening its eventful pages1 the memory of wonderful achievements was upon the great city of the ,adriatic1 it was still a power to be reckoned with4 ,the season of pageants had not passed1 and the luck that seemed destined to accompany ,rubens throughout his career was in close attendance upon him here4 ,the ,duke of ,mantua4 ,vincenzo ,gonzaga1 saw some of his work1 and was so struck by its quality that he sent for the young painter4 ,the man seemed worthy of his creations1 and the ,duke promptly offered him a position in his suite1 an offer too good to be declined4 ,thereafter the sojourn in ,venice was a short one4 ,mantua1 ,florence1 and ,genoa were visited in turn1 and in ,mantua1 after some months travelling to and fro1 the ,court settled down1 and ,rubens was enabled to study the splendid collection of works that the city's rulers had collected4 ,in the late summer of the following year ,rubens would seem to have visited ,rome1 where he faced the terrible heat without any ill effect and devoted himself with untiring energy to a study of the work that is to be seen there and nowhere else4 ,it would appear that he was well received by the leading artists of the day1 that he made a friend of ,caravaggio1 and he was soon commissioned to paint an altar-piece for the ,church of the ,holy ,cross of ,jerusalem4 ,the work1 done in three parts1 is now we believe in the possession of the ,french ,government1 and is to be seen in ,grasse or one of the neighbouring towns of the ,mediterranean littoral4 ,when ,rubens' leave of absence expired--it must not be forgotten that he was in the service of ,mantua's ruler1 and was not his own master--he returned to the north1 where the ,duke would seem to have employed him for a time as an art expert4 ,we may imagine that politics and art were closely connected1 and that ,rubens soon knew responsibility in connection with both4 ,the work must have been very well done in each case1 for rather more than a year later1 when it became necessary in the interests of ,mantua's political position to send a message to the ,king of ,spain1 ,rubens was the chosen envoy4 ,nowadays the journey from ,mantua to ,madrid may be accomplished without extraordinary exertion in forty-eight hours1 but three hundred years ago such a journey must have savoured of adventure1 more particularly as the painter-diplomat was in charge of the splendid presents sent to ,philip by the ,duke4 ,nearly a year passed before ,rubens returned to ,mantua4 ,his mission executed1 he was rewarded with the grant of a regular income1 and after executing some more work at home to the complete satisfaction of his patron1 he returned to ,rome1 this time in the company of his brother4 ,they lived near the ,piazza di ,spagna1 where the ,roman models and flower-sellers congregate to this day1 and tourists are as the sand upon the sea-shore for multitude4 ,philip ,rubens1 smitten by the weakness to which so many men have succumbed before and since1 celebrated his journey by writing a book4 ,it was printed by the famous ,plantin ,press1 with one of whose directors ,peter ,paul had been at school1 and was illustrated by the artist4 ,we may suppose that the work ,rubens had done in ,rome on the occasion of his earlier visit had satisfied its purchasers1 for he received another commission for the ,chiesa ,nuova1 but was recalled before it was completed1 and taken to ,genoa by the ,duke of ,mantua4 ,however1 he soon returned to ,rome1 where he remained until the close of #afjh and then left for ,antwerp1 where his mother1 who had been living in that city for some years1 was dangerously ill4 ,rubens does not seem to have known how ill she was1 for he arrived in ,antwerp too late to see her4 ,she was a woman cast in heroic mould1 most generous of wives1 most devoted of mothers4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iv4--,,isabella ,,brandt 7,in the ,wallace ,collection7 ,naturally enough ,rubens painted many portraits of his first wife4 ,there is the delightful work in the ,pinacotek at ,munich where the painter sits by her side1 there are others in the ,uffizi at ,florence1 and the great ,hermitage ,gallery at ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,perhaps the shock of her death awoke ,rubens to the disadvantages attaching to the paid service of any man1 perhaps he was beginning to realise his own quality and to know that he could stand alone4 ,perhaps he saw1 too1 that ,italy had taught him as much as his years would allow him to assimilate1 enough to make a man of mark in ,antwerp4 ,we have no certain information on these points1 we can do no more than make surmises1 but we do know that ,rubens wrote to the ,duke of ,mantua1 thanking him for all the favours and marks of confidence that he had received1 and acquainting him with his decision to resign from his service4 ,with the return to ,antwerp the era that opened with the visit to ,venice eight years before comes to a close1 and we enter upon the most strenuous period of the artist's life4 ,,iii ,,second ,,period ,rubens carried an assured reputation with him to ,antwerp4 ,the story of his success had doubtless been spread through the town by people who were in touch with the ,italian courts1 and it is hardly likely that his elder brother ,philip1 now secretary to the ,antwerp ,town ,council1 and a man wielding considerable influence1 had forgotten to tell the story of his brother's progress4 ,antwerp was in the early enjoyment of a period of peace following disastrous war1 and it was quite in keeping with the spirit of the times that the leading citizens1 who had taken a prominent part in the world of strife1 should now turn their thoughts to the world of art and should endeavour to take their part in the friendly competition that all prosperous cities waged against one another in their pursuit of beauty2 and this competition led to the enriching of churches and council-chambers with the finest ripe fruits of contemporary art4 ,antwerp had established a circle for the exclusive benefit of those who had travelled in ,italy1 because it was recognised on all sides that the best mental and artistic development was associated with ,italian travel4 ,rubens was admitted at once to the charmed circle on the initiative of his friend ,jean ,breughel1 the animal painter1 with whom ,rubens collaborated in a picture that may be seen to-day at the ,hague1 and is called ,the ,earthly ,paradise1 a quaint medley of two styles that cannot be persuaded to harmonise4 ,peter ,paul lived with his beloved brother ,philip1 to whose influence we are probably justified in tracing the first two commissions that were given to the young painter4 ,one was to take part in the work of re-decorating the ,town ,hall1 the other was to prepare an altar-piece for the ,church of ,st4 ,walpurga4 ,for the ,town ,hall ,rubens painted the first of his long series of ,adorations1 and though it is emphatically one of the works of his first period1 and is far from expressing the varied qualities that have given him enduring fame1 it created sufficient sensation in ,antwerp to bring him the position of ,court painter1 with a definite salary and a special permission to remain in the city of his choice4 ,had he been a lesser man he would have been called away to attend the ,court in ,brussels4 ,undoubtedly ,rubens was a patriot1 a man to whom the fallen fortunes of his city appealed very strongly4 ,we must never forget that the endless wars stirred up by ,spanish ambition had roused the best instincts of patriotism the world over1 and though ,rubens was not a warrior1 he was a statesman and a patriot1 who knew that his hands and brain could serve his city in their own effective fashion1 one in no way inferior in its results to that of the fighting men4 ,perhaps we may trace to all the mental disturbance of this era the artist's first great transition1 for the ,rubens who painted in ,antwerp after his return from ,italy and gave the ,descent from the ,cross to his city1 is quite a different man from the one who painted the earlier pictures4 ,he has matured and developed1 has completed the period of assimilation through which all creative artists must pass1 has gathered from the talents1 from the genius of the men he has studied1 the material for founding a style of his own4 ,he begins to speak with his own voice4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,v4--,,le ,,chapeau ,,de ,,paille 7,in the ,national ,gallery7 ,this is a portrait of ,suzanne ,fourment1 a sister of the painter's second wife1 painted when the sitter was about twenty-one years old4 ,the serenity of the girl's mind is admirably expressed in this sparkling work1 and is one of ,rubens' successful essays in portraiture4 ,another study of ,suzanne ,fourment may be seen in ,vienna4 ,it is well that ,rubens' industry was on a par with his talents1 for commissions poured in upon him in the first years of his return from ,italy4 ,they came not singly but in battalions1 and very soon we find ,peter ,paul ,rubens following the fashion of his time and establishing a studio school4 ,naturally enough there were plenty of young men who wished to become his pupils1 and plenty of old ones who had just missed distinction and were anxious for any work that was remunerative4 ,rubens realised that if he could but turn their gifts to the best advantage they would at least be as valuable to him as he could be to them4 ,consequently he responded to the suggestions that were made to him on every side1 and gathered the cleverest unattached men of his city to the studio1 giving each one his work to do4 ,let us place to his credit the fact that there was no disguise about this procedure1 it was open and unabashed4 ,rubens would even send pupils to start a work that had been commissioned1 and would not appear on the scene until the first outline of the picture was on the canvas4 ,then he would come along and with a few unerring strokes correct or supplement the composition1 to which his pupils could pay their further attentions4 ,rubens received high prices for his work1 but would give his name to a picture in return for a comparatively low fee1 if the purchaser would but be content to have his design and leave the painting to pupils4 ,it may be said that ,rubens was always fortunate in his selection of assistants1 just as he was fortunate in other affairs of life4 ,the great ,vandyck was among those who worked in his studio1 ,snyders the celebrated animal painter was another2 it is said that ,rubens never touched his work4 ,like the ,florentine painters of the ,renaissance1 ,rubens was by no means satisfied to devote himself entirely to paint4 ,he had been greatly impressed during his sojourn in ,italy by the extraordinary beauty of the palaces of ,genoa--a beauty1 be it added1 that charms us no less to-day when time has added its priceless gifts to the architects' design4 ,rubens published a book on the ,genoese palaces1 with something between fifty and one hundred drawings of his own1 most carefully made4 ,he found time to make illustrations for the famous ,plantin ,press1 to which we have referred already4 ,he superintended the work of engraving his own pictures1 and in short showed himself a man competent to grasp more than the common burden of interests1 and to deal with them all with a rare intelligence coupled with sound business instinct4 ,although the painter's education had not been great1 he had acquired scholarship at a time when classical education was considered of the very highest value1 and no man who lacked it could claim to be regarded as a gentleman4 ,he maintained correspondence with friends in the great cities of ,europe1 and as he had great personal attractions and a perfect charm of manner with which to support his industry and achievements1 there is small need to wonder at his progress4 ,success would indeed have been a fickle jade had she refused to surrender to such wooing4 ,,iv ,,the ,,later ,,years ,when the painter had passed his fortieth year he received a commission from the ,dowager ,queen ,maria de ,medici to paint certain panels for her palace in ,paris1 and in order to see them properly placed and to get a comprehensive idea of the scheme of decoration1 he betook himself with the first part of his finished work to the ,french capital4 ,there is no doubt that ,rubens was already regarded in the governing circles of ,antwerp as something more than a painter4 ,his relations with the ruling house had brought him into touch with diplomatic developments--he had handled one or two with extreme tact1 delicacy1 and success4 ,the ,infanta ,isabel relied upon him in seasons of emergency1 and although the political value of his first visit to ,paris in #afbc cannot be gauged1 it is fairly safe to assume that his second visit to the capital two years later was far more concerned with politics than paint4 ,to put before the reader a brief story of the complications of the political situation between ,france1 ,spain1 and the ,low ,countries would make impossible demands upon strictly limited space1 but those who wish to understand something of the politics of his time may be referred to the works of ,emile ,michel and ,max ,rooses on ,peter ,paul ,rubens and his time4 ,they will find there far more historical and biographical matter than can be referred to in this place4 ,suffice it to say that from #afbe ,rubens must be regarded as a diplomatist quite as much as a painter1 but curiously enough the development of the political side of his life did nothing to destroy the quality of his painting4 ,in fact he seems to have travelled along the road of diplomacy to his best and latest manner1 to have seen life more clearly1 and the problems of his art more intelligently than before1 to have brought to his work something of the quality that we call genius4 ,the one gift that the gods denied him was poetic fancy1 a quality that would have kept him from the portrayal of types and incidents that we are apt to regard1 with or without justification1 as ugly1 that would have made his classicism pleasing to eyes that read it at its true value4 ,but ,rubens was one of the men who have to fight1 not against failure but against success2 and the shrewd practical nature that made him what he was served as an effective barrier against acquisition of the qualities that would have lifted him to the region that always remained just beyond his reach4 #afbh was a very interesting year in the painter's life1 for he was sent on a mission to the ,court of ,spain1 where he met ,velazquez1 who was instructed to show him all the art treasures of the capital4 ,what would we not give to-day for an authentic account of the conversations that these men must have held together8 ,rubens was at the zenith of his fame1 if not of his achievement1 ,velazquez was unknown save in ,seville and ,madrid1 and was fighting against every class of disadvantage on the road to belated recognition4 ,let those who sneer at ,rubens and can find no good about him1 remember that he it was who turned ,velazquez' attention to ,italy4 ,rubens found time to paint portraits of several members of the royal family1 and these works are fine likenesses enough1 though they do not pretend to rival ,velazquez' achievements in the same field4 ,the diplomatic business was conducted with so much skill that ,philip entrusted his visitor with a mission to ,paris and ,london4 ,in the last-named city ,rubens was received by ,charles ,i41 who conferred a knighthood upon him1 and approved of his commission to decorate the banqueting-chamber at ,whitehall4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vi4--,,the ,,descent ,,from ,,the ,,cross 7,in the ,cathedral1 ,antwerp7 ,here we have ,rubens in his most realistic mood and in all his strength4 ,not only is the composition of a very complicated picture quite masterly and the colour scheme most happily distributed1 but the contrast in the expression on the faces round the dead ,christ is expressed in most dramatic fashion4 ,the eye and the mind see the tragic drama at the same moment2 although the subject had been treated hundreds of times already1 the painter found it possible to give the theme a fresh and enduring expression4 ,back again in ,antwerp1 ,rubens found his talents sorely tried by the diplomatic developments in which the restless ambition of ,maria de ,medici involved all the countries subject directly or indirectly to her influence4 ,he found himself compelled to go twice to ,holland in the early thirties1 but the death of the ,infanta ,isabel in #afcc removed him awhile from the heated arena of politics4 ,rubens prepared ,antwerp for the visit of the ,archduke ,ferdinand1 the ,spanish governor1 the city being decorated for this occasion at a cost of #hj1jjj florins4 ,the work was so successful that the ,archduke paid a special visit of congratulation to the artist1 who was laid up in his room by an attack of gout4 ,two or three years later1 some warnings that his strength would not hold out much longer availed to turn ,rubens from the life of ,courts and capitals1 and he purchased for himself the ,chteau de ,stein1 a very beautiful estate that is preserved for us by the delightful picture in the ,national ,gallery4 ,there he settled down for awhile to fulfil certain commissions for the ,king of ,spain1 and doubtless had he been permitted to remain in retirement his health would have been the better and his life the longer4 ,but ,antwerp could not dispense with the services of her painter-diplomat1 and many a time when he would have been in his studio working at his ease1 some urgent message from the city would drag him away4 ,in the winter of #afci he passed some months in ,antwerp1 working as best he could in the intervals of severe attacks of gout4 ,the ,king of ,spain's commission was still unfinished1 and some feeling that he himself would never be able to complete it led ,rubens to engage a larger number of assistants than usual1 and to content himself with directing their efforts and supplementing them as occasion arose4 ,he seems to have known that death was near1 for he made his will and prepared to meet the end4 ,it came with ,may in #afdj1 when the painter was in the sixty-fourth year of a brilliant and useful life4 ,rubens was twice married1 first to ,isabel ,brandt1 who became his wife when she was eighteen and he was thirty-two1 shortly after his return to ,antwerp from the service of the ,duke of ,mantua4 ,a portrait of the two sons this wife bore him may be seen in ,vienna4 ,isabel ,brandt did not live to see her boys1 ,albert and ,nicholas1 grow to manhood4 ,she died in #afbf1 some say from the plague that swept ,antwerp in that year4 ,four years later the painter married the beautiful ,helena ,fourment1 when he was fifty-four and she was sixteen1 and she survived him4 ,he seems to have been a good and affectionate husband and father4 ,in fact1 it is hard to find among the biographers of ,rubens anybody who speaks ill of the artist as a man4 ,v ,,the ,,painter',s ,,art ,turning from a survey of ,rubens' life to a consideration of his art1 the three divisions to which his work groups itself naturally1 are very clearly seen4 ,up to the time of his marriage with ,isabel ,brandt his work may be referred to the first division1 and in art it may be said that no man's earliest pictures are of much consequence save for their promise of higher things4 ,they do little more than mark his progress1 record impressions he has received from strong personalities1 and mark his own path through the influences of different schools and varied appeals1 to the complete expression of himself4 ,rubens was never a slavish imitator1 he never assumed the mantles of the men he admired1 as so many great painters have done4 ,goya1 for example1 was a man whose range of thought and capacity for receiving impressions were so great that he has painted after the manner of half-a-dozen masters1 and there are pictures to be seen in ,madrid to-day that are painted with ,goya's brush and recall ,fragonard4 ,such instances may be multiplied1 and ,rubens is to be admired for the restraint that marked this side of his early work4 ,from the time of his marriage down to the season when he became recognised on all sides as a diplomatist1 let us say roughly from #afaj to #afbf1 we get the second period1 and to this may be referred the greater part of the work that has given offence--the presentation of the coarsest types of men and women in a state of nature--the treatment of some of the grossest incidents in mythological stories in fashion that leaves nothing to the imagination4 ,we are justified in asking ourselves whether the extraordinary development of the painter's social and political life did not avail to arrest in late middle age any tendencies he might otherwise have had to express still further the coarser side of classical subjects4 ,by the time he reached the forties1 ,rubens was the companion and even the trusted counsellor of princes and rulers4 ,such refinement as ,western ,europe boasted was to be met in the circles he frequented4 ,the greatest work of the greatest masters was within his reach1 and he had travelled to the point at which a man is able to select as well as to admire1 at which he can distinguish clearly between the points that make for a picture's strength and those that detract from it4 ,rubens on arriving in ,italy in the days when he had first taken service under the ,duke of ,mantua1 was doubtless unduly impressed by ,michel ,angelo and ,raphael4 ,on no other grounds can we account for the delight that his earliest pictures manifest in the portrayal of massive and even ugly limbs4 ,doubtless he was influenced too by ,titian1 though we cannot agree that it was his admiration for the master that made him copy the ,king's ,titians in the ,prado1 for it is more probable that on this occasion he simply obeyed instructions4 ,moreover1 ,rome appealed to him more than ,venice did4 ,the wistful purity of a ,bellini ,madonna1 the exquisite loveliness of a ,bellini child or cherub1 left him unmoved1 but a ,titian or a ,tintoretto at its biggest1 if not at its best1 pleased him1 and when he came in ,rome to the works of ,raphael and ,michel ,angelo he would seem to have looked no further for inspiration4 ,doubtless he heard many interesting theories of art in ,rome1 where1 as we have said1 ,caravaggio1 who wielded considerable influence in the art world1 was among his friends4 ,but ,rubens thought out things for himself1 and learned to quell his own instincts and to subdue his own faults as they were revealed to him4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vii4--,,henry ,,iv4 ,,leaving ,,for ,a ,,campaign 7,in the ,louvre7 ,here the painter1 leaving mythology and allegory for a time1 is seen in one of his most effective historical pictures4 ,henry ,,iv41 who is leaving for the war in ,germany1 is seen conferring upon his ,queen the charge of the kingdom4 ,violence is perhaps the characteristic of ,rubens' early work4 ,he has the grand manner without the grand method1 his contrasts of light and shade and even of colour amuse where they do not offend1 and his drawing is by no means remarkable or inspired4 ,at best it is correct4 ,we feel that we cannot see the wood because of the trees1 that the blending has not been sufficiently skilful to bring about proportion and harmony1 and that the expression of a giant form with prize-fighter's muscles in the foreground of a canvas is sufficient to fill the painter with a delight that enables him happily to ignore the rest4 ,it is the enthusiasm of clever youth1 the youth of a man in whose veins there is enough and to spare of very healthy blood1 in whose mental equipment refinement has been overlooked4 ,the death of his mother1 the distressful plight of his favourite city1 the responsibility of his commissions1 his marriage and the fruits of his ,italian travel brought about the second period1 and started the traditions that give ,antwerp a school and a name in the history of ,european art4 ,the violence passes slowly from the canvases1 the straining after effect that is so obvious and often so unpleasing in the earlier pictures goes with it4 ,the chiaroscuro is more subdued and consequently more pleasing1 only in the handling of colour the painter is still clumsy and heavy4 ,rubens1 the great colourist1 seems to have been born when the artist was more than forty years old4 ,some of the best work of the second period is in ,antwerp and ,brussels1 but it is to be found scattered all over ,europe1 and there are examples in private collections in this country4 ,perhaps the dominant impression that these works leave is one of certain difficulties created to be overcome4 ,just as the painter in his first manner revelled in his strength1 so in his second period he rejoices in his skill4 ,it was left to the later years to weld strength and skill into the service1 on pictures that could stand for both and emphasise neither4 ,mythology continued to hold him1 indeed we must never forget that ,rubens lived in the age of pseudo-classicism1 and is to be counted among its victims4 ,to his second period belongs such work as the disgusting ,procession of ,silenus now in ,munich1 a picture in which the grossness of the theme is only rivalled by the vulgarity of the treatment4 ,some of ,rubens' apologists have held that this class of work was painted as a protest against vice1 but such apologies are far-fetched4 ,rubens needs no apologist4 ,consider his work as a whole1 and what is good dwarfs what is bad4 ,doubtless1 had he been able in the later days to re-possess and destroy some of his more tainted pictures1 he would have done so4 ,it will be remarked by all who know ,rubens' work intimately1 that throughout his life he was happier with a ,venus than a ,madonna1 more at home with some great classical figure1 than with the picture of ,christ4 ,he did not respond to ,christianity in the sense that the ,venetians responded to it1 he could not for all his reputation have painted a ,madonna as ,bellini did1 and there is no reason to believe that he would have cared to do so4 ,then again we may not forget that ,rubens the artist1 and ,rubens the courtier1 and ,rubens the special envoy1 were closely associated with ,rubens the man of business1 who would always have painted for choice the work likely to find immediate acceptance4 ,there were times when some legend of ,saint or ,martyr moved him strangely1 and he turned to it with a measure of inspiration not often excelled by the greatest of the ,renaissance artists2 but these occasions were rare1 although ,antwerp preserves one of the most effective results of such inspiration in the ,last ,communion of ,st4 ,francis4 ,it may be remarked in this place that to see ,rubens at his best1 one must not go to the ,national ,gallery or to the ,louvre or to the ,prado--,antwerp and ,vienna hold some of the finest examples of his second and third manner4 ,and we must never forget that ,art is concerned with treatment1 and that subject is of secondary interest to artists4 ,when he became recognised as a diplomatist whose services were required by ,europe's greatest potentates1 ,rubens had passed the meridian of life4 ,he had known prosperity from the very earliest days1 he had no occasion to paint pictures of the sort so admirably summed up by the offensive word pot-boiler4 ,kings and ,queens and ,emperors were offering him commissions1 he was1 if we may say so1 on his best behaviour4 ,he rose to the height of every great occasion4 ,the commission that ,maria de ,medici gave him for her palace seems to have brought him to his third and latest manner1 and from that year until death overtook him ,rubens was one of the great masters of ,european art4 ,if we could eliminate all the pictures of his first manner and a considerable portion of those belonging to his middle period1 his claims would hardly be denied by the representatives and supporters of any school4 ,he seems to have received added inspiration from his child wife1 and there are few more delightful pictures than one to be seen in ,munich in which ,rubens and ,helena ,fourment are walking from their garden to their chteau4 ,perhaps even in the later days woman was nothing more than a thing of beauty for a man's delight1 and man was no more than a godlike animal1 but a well-defined measure of refinement was always beyond their painter's mental or artistic conceptions4 ,it is sufficient for us that the appeal of nature came to him with great strength4 ,the ,chteau of ,stein in our ,national ,gallery and the ,rainbow ,landscape in the ,wallace ,collection gives sufficient evidence of this1 while such a work as the ,garden of ,venus in the ,prado suggests the limitations that were with him throughout his life4 ,it is fair to say that in the later years they were not expressed so prominently in his work4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,viii4--,,the ,,virgin ,,and ,,the ,,holy ,,innocents 7,in the ,louvre7 ,in this picture ,rubens allows his brush to run away with him as though for sheer joy in its capacity4 ,perhaps his study of the ,virgin is a little commonplace1 a little too suggestive of the exuberance of ,flanders rather than the refinement and spirituality of ,nazareth4 ,but the studies of the ,holy ,innocents are a delight1 and make the canvas supremely attractive4 ,it will be seen that the grouping of the children results in every possible difficulty that an artist may have to face1 but that ,rubens has encountered them all with sure1 hard1 and steady eye1 in fashion worthy of ,tintoretto himself4 ,finally we have to consider and acknowledge his triumphs as a colourist4 ,it may be said that ,rubens1 for all his gifts1 required more than twenty years of unremitting labour to obtain his mastery over colour1 but when once it was his he retained the gift to the last hour4 ,in the early days ,rubens as a colourist was a person of no importance1 the grossness of his composition and the tameness of his drawing were not redeemed by the handling of pigment4 ,in the second period the use of paint is far more skilled1 but it does not blend1 neither does it glow4 ,in the later years it acquires both gifts1 and the exquisitely luminous quality of some of his pictures1 the marvellous delicacy of flesh tint1 that must have astonished and delighted his patrons1 is preserved to us to-day4 ,in fact it may be said that ,rubens has preserved his colour to a larger extent than many great painters who came after him4 ,he is far more reliable in this aspect of his art than is our own ,sir ,joshua1 whose portraits have long ceased to tell the story they must have told to delighted and flattered sitters4 ,it was no effort of genius that made ,rubens a supreme colourist in the later years4 ,he came to his kingdom by dint of sheer hard work1 but for his painstaking devotion to labours such results could not have been achieved4 ,the spirit of the ,renaissance travelled very slowly from ,italy to the ,netherlands1 and that its influence was felt in the sixteenth century did not lead to any very marked divergence from the traditions that the art of the ,netherlands was following4 ,italian form and ,italian sentiment met with little response there1 and there is no doubt that the eighty years of conflict with ,spain which led to the recognition of the ,republic1 turned men's thoughts away from art4 ,by the time it was possible to revive a school1 the ,netherlands were looking to life rather than to faith1 and even the classicism of the period that turned ,rubens towards pictures illustrating mythological incidents could not help him to create imaginary figures4 ,this is as it should have been1 for it made eighteenth-century art what it was through the influence of ,rubens and ,vandyck4 ,he filled his canvas with the types he saw around him1 and while nobody will dispute the virtue of the ,netherlands1 there will be few found to assert that it produced the ,latin type of womanhood4 ,the people of the ,netherlands do not belong to the ,latin races2 that is why they did not respond earlier to the ,renaissance1 that is why they look at what seems to be their worst rather than their best in some of ,rubens' most ambitious works4 ,yet by reason of his long sojourn and hard study in ,italy1 ,rubens did do something considerable to bring ,italian art and tradition into the ,netherlands1 and if he could not establish it there1 the cause of failure was that the genius of the country was opposed to it4 ,among the painters who worked for ,rubens or were greatly influenced by him the best known are ,anthony ,vandyck1 ,frans ,snyders1 ,abraham ,janssens1 ,jacob ,jordaens1 and ,jan ,van ,den ,hoecke4 ,then again1 of course1 it must not be forgotten that he exercised a very great influence upon ,david ,teniers1 and that he served the interests of art development far more than he could have done by giving fresh life to an art form that had served its time and purpose4 ,rubens the landscape painter1 the painter of religious and mythological subjects1 has rather obscured ,rubens the portrait painter1 and this is not as it should be1 for many will be inclined to agree that it is as a portrait painter that ,rubens was often at his best4 ,visitors to ,florence will not forget the portrait group entitled ,the ,philosophers1 that may be seen in the ,pitti ,palace4 ,our ,wallace ,collection has a delightful portrait of ,isabel ,brandt1 and the ,national ,gallery holds the portrait of ,suzanne ,fourment1 ,le ,chapeau de ,paille1 while ,amsterdam and other cities hold portraits of his second wife1 the famous portrait of ,gervatius is to be seen in ,antwerp1 and there are several delightful examples of his portraiture in ,brussels4 ,it was in these schools of art that ,rubens has succeeded in pleasing many who turn with feelings not far removed from disgust from his unshrinking studies of the coarse overblown or overgrown womanhood4 ,he contrived either to confer a measure of dignity upon his sitters or to conserve one4 ,his portraits of his two wives1 and the portrait group in the ,pitti ,palace that introduces his brother1 are full of a deep feeling for which we may look in vain to many of his larger canvases4 ,just as the pianist or violinist will turn from playing some wonderful concerto bristling with difficulties for the soloist and calculated to delight the ears of the groundlings1 and then taking up some simple piece by a great master will infuse into it all the qualities that the showy concerto hid1 so ,rubens turned from the wars and loves of gods and goddesses1 from ,bacchic carnivals and groups in which nudity is insisted upon sometimes at the expense of relevance1 and would paint portraits that will be a delight as long as they remain with us4 ,rubens painting the portrait of wife or brother or friend1 and ,rubens covering vast canvases with glittering and sometimes meretricious work are two different men4 ,we may admire the latter1 but we come near to intimate appreciation of the former4 ,in the portraits the man is revealed1 in the big pictures we see no more than artist1 and some of us fail to realise how clever he is1 how many problems of composition and tone and light and shade he has grappled with and overcome in manner well-nigh heroic4 ,the secret of his changing moods is of course beyond us1 but perhaps one may hazard an explanation for the difference in the quality of the work done4 ,as far as we can see from a study of the painter's work and life1 he approached mythology and ,christianity from a purely pictorial standpoint1 and did not believe in one or the other4 ,the ,procession to ,calvary1 ,the ,crucifixion1 ,the ,descent from the ,cross1 ,the ,flight into ,egypt1 ,the ,adoration of the ,magi1 ,the ,draught of ,fishes1 ,the ,raising of the ,cross1 ,the ,assumption of the ,virgin1 ,the ,last ,supper1 ,the ,circumcision1 ,the ,flagellation1 and the rest1 were no more and no less to him as subjects than ,the ,drunken ,hercules or ,the ,battle of the ,amazons1 ,the ,garden of ,venus or ,the ,judgment of ,paris4 ,they were popular subjects for effective treatment1 pictures that would make a sure appeal to those who loved either the sacred or the profane in art1 pictures to be executed with all possible skill at the greatest possible speed1 and with a measure of assistance regulated by the price that was to be paid for them4 ,but the portraits of his friends1 of the brother he loved1 and of the wives to whom he was a devoted husband1 stood on quite a different plane4 ,he felt the human interest attaching to them1 and this human interest brought to his canvas certain qualities that belong to the heart rather than the head1 and have given them a claim that is not disputed even by the painter's most severe critics4 ,the plates are printed by ,,bemrose ,,sons1 ,,ltd41 ,derby and ,london ,the text at the ,,ballantyne ,,press1 ,edinburgh