All Rubens' Women

A major exhibition in London tells the story of Peter Paul Rubens' relationship with women. Icons of beauty, inspiring muses, representations of elegance and beauty, women are one of the central subjects in the art of the great Flemish painter who lived between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Over 40 paintings and drawings along with archival material chronicle the essential ways in which Rubens' relationships with women nourished his creativity and artistic career - from the role played by female patrons and family members to his deep faith, artistic convictions and great loves. The exhibition will open with a striking series of portraits of elegant, elite and powerful women, alongside intimate depictions of his two wives, Isabella Brant and Helena Fourment, and his eldest daughter, Clara Serena. The exhibition will highlight how women in Rubens' art were not simply passive objects to be observed, but active agents of their own destiny, and a powerful finale to the exhibition will include large-scale paintings of heroic mythological women with highlights including The Birth of the Way Milky Way (1636-1638) from the Prado Museum in Madrid, on display in the UK for the first time, Diana Returning from the Hunt (about 1615) from the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and Venus, Mars and Cupid from the Dulwich Picture Gallery (about 1614).