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MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR

EDITED BY T. LEMAN HARE


RUBENS




IN THE SAME SERIES


      ARTIST.                 AUTHOR.

    VELAZQUEZ.              S. L. BENSUSAN.
    REYNOLDS.               S. L. BENSUSAN.
    TURNER.                 C. LEWIS HIND.
    ROMNEY.                 C. LEWIS HIND.
    GREUZE.                 ALYS EYRE MACKLIN.
    BOTTICELLI.             HENRY B. BINNS.
    ROSSETTI.               LUCIEN PISSARRO.
    BELLINI.                GEORGE HAY.
    FRA ANGELICO.           JAMES MASON.
    REMBRANDT.              JOSEF ISRAELS.
    LEIGHTON.               A. LYS BALDRY.
    RAPHAEL.                PAUL G. KONODY.
    HOLMAN HUNT.            MARY E. COLERIDGE.
    TITIAN.                 S. L. BENSUSAN.
    MILLAIS.                A. LYS BALDRY.
    CARLO DOLCI.            GEORGE HAY.
    GAINSBOROUGH.           MAX ROTHSCHILD.
    TINTORETTO.             S. L. BENSUSAN.
    LUINI.                  JAMES MASON.
    FRANZ HALS.             EDGCUMBE STALEY.
    VAN DYCK.               PERCY M. TURNER.
    LEONARDO DA VINCI.      M. W. BROCKWELL.
    RUBENS.                 S. L. BENSUSAN.
    WHISTLER.               T. MARTIN WOOD.


  _In Preparation_

    VIGEE LE BRUN.          C. HALDANE MACFALL.
    BURNE-JONES.            A. LYS BALDRY.
    HOLBEIN.                S. L. BENSUSAN.
    J. F. MILLET.           PERCY M. TURNER.
    MEMLINC.                W. H. JAMES WEALE.
    ALBERT DUeRER.           HERBERT FURST.
    FRAGONARD.              C. HALDANE MACFALL.
    CONSTABLE.              C. LEWIS HIND.
    RAEBURN.                JAMES L. CAW.
    CHARDIN.                PAUL G. KONODY.
    BOUCHER.                C. HALDANE MACFALL.
    WATTEAU.                C. LEWIS HIND.
    MURILLO.                S. L. BENSUSAN.


  AND OTHERS.




[Illustration: PLATE I.--ELIZABETH OF FRANCE, DAUGHTER OF HENRY IV.
Frontispiece (In the Louvre)

The Princess is seen to great advantage in this fine portrait. The fair
complexion of the sitter is remarkably preserved, the white ruff, the
jewels, and the gold brocade are very cleverly handled. Another portrait
of Princess Elizabeth, painted in Madrid, may now be seen in St.
Petersburg.]




Rubens

BY S. L. BENSUSAN


ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR


[Illustration]


LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK

NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO.




CONTENTS


                                Page
    I. Introduction               11

   II. The Painter's Life         21

  III. Second Period              35

   IV. The Later Years            45

    V. The Painter's Art          55




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


  Plate
     I. Elizabeth of France, Daughter of Henry IV.        Frontispiece
          In the Louvre
                                                                  Page
    II. Christ a la Paille                                          14
          At Antwerp Museum

   III. The Four Philosophers                                       24
          In the Pitti Palace, Florence

    IV. Isabella Brandt                                             34
          In the Wallace Collection

     V. Le Chapeau de Paille                                        40
          In the National Gallery

    VI. The Descent from the Cross                                  50
          In the Cathedral, Antwerp

   VII. Henry IV. leaving for a Campaign                            60
          In the Louvre

  VIII. The Virgin and the Holy Innocents                           70
          In the Louvre




[Illustration]




I

INTRODUCTION


The name of Peter Paul Rubens is written so large in the history of
European art, that all the efforts of detractors have failed to stem the
tide of appreciation that flows towards it. Rubens was a great master
in nearly every pictorial sense of the term; and if at times the
coarseness and lack of restraint of his era were reflected upon his
canvas, we must blame the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries rather
than the man who worked through some of their most interesting years,
and at worst was no more than a realist. There may have been seasons
when he elected to attempt more than any man could hope to achieve.
There were times when he set himself to work deliberately to express
certain scenes, romantic or mythological, in a fashion that must have
startled his contemporaries and gives offence to-day; but to do justice
to the painter, we must consider his work as a whole, we must set the
best against the worst.

[Illustration: PLATE II.--CHRIST A LA PAILLE (At Antwerp Museum)

Whatever the Biblical story Rubens chose, he handled it not only with
skill, but with a certain sense of conviction that is the more
remarkable in one who owed no allegiance to the Church. There is fine
feeling and deep reverence in the "Christ a la Paille," in addition to
the dramatic feeling that accompanied all his religious pictures. The
colouring, though very bold, is most effective; in the hands of a less
skilled painter such a display of primary colouring might well have
seemed violent or even vulgar.]

Consider the vast range of achievements that embraced landscape,
portraiture, and decorative work, giving to every subject such quality
of workmanship and skill in composition, as none save a very few of the
world's great masters have been able to convey to canvas. And let it be
remembered, too, that Rubens was not only a painter, he was a statesman
and a diplomat; and amid cares and anxieties that might well have filled
the life of any smaller man, he found time to paint countless pictures
in every style, and to move steadily forward along the road to mastery,
so that his second period is better than the first, in which he was, if
the expression may be used with propriety, finding himself. The third
period, which saw the painting of the great works that hang in Antwerp's
Cathedral and Museum to-day, and is represented in our own National
Gallery and Wallace Collection, was the best of all. Passing from his
labours as he did at a comparatively early age, for Rubens was but
sixty-three when he died, 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 name. He
did not reach his supreme mastery of colour until he had lived for half
a century or more, and the pictures that have the greatest blots upon
them from the point of view of the twentieth century, were painted
before he reached the summit of his powers. It is perhaps unfortunate
that Rubens painted far too many works to admit of a truly
representative collection in any city or gallery. The best are widely
scattered; some are in the Prado in Madrid, others are in Belgium, some
are in Florence. Holland has a goodly collection, while Antwerp boasts
among many masterpieces "The Passing of Christ," "The Adoration of the
Magi," "The Prodigal Son," and "The Christ a la Paille." Munich,
Brussels, Dresden, Vienna, 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 prejudice. It is impossible to found an opinion not
likely to be shaken, upon the work to be seen in London or in Paris,
where the Louvre holds many of the painter's least attractive works. It
may be said that Peter Paul Rubens is represented in every gallery of
importance throughout Europe, that