Flemish1577–1640
Peter Paul Rubens
The leading painter of Baroque Flanders, who ran a large Antwerp workshop and served as court painter to the rulers of the Southern Netherlands. He was also a diplomat, ennobled by Philip IV of Spain and knighted by Charles I of England. In his last years he bought a country estate near Mechelen and turned increasingly to landscape.
A life in paintings
- 1577Born
- 1628Influenced Diego VelázquezMadrid
Rubens spent seven months at the Spanish court in 1628–29 on a diplomatic mission and thought highly of the young court painter Velázquez. He left little mark on Velázquez's style, but he fired his wish to see Italy and its great masters, and Velázquez sailed for Italy in 1629, soon after Rubens left.
Source: Wikipedia - 1636
- 1640Died
Rubens was among the old masters whose paintings particularly inspired Constable as a young man. The collector Sir George Beaumont, who let Constable study the old masters in his collection, owned one of Rubens's late Flemish landscapes and gave it to the National Gallery in 1823.
Circles
Society · Antwerp
Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke
The Antwerp painters' guild; membership as a master was required to take apprentices or sell paintings to the public in Antwerp. Bruegel entered it in 1551, de Heem in 1635 or 1636.
Where to see them
National Gallery
London
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