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Peter Paul Rubens, Self-portrait, oil on panel, 61,5 x 45 cm, Antwerp, Rubenshuis

Paul Rubens (landscape and flowers by Jan I Brueghel), The Madonna with the Periwinkle, oil on panel, 66,5 x 48 cm, Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium own a remarkable collection of around fifty works either painted by Rubens himself or in collaboration with the studio, as well as paintings the Antwerp master produced together with renowned colleagues like Jan Brueghel the Elder and Cornelis de Vos.
This collection, which contains oil sketches, cabinet paintings and altarpieces, reflects the most productive period in Rubens’ career, when his creative genius and entrepreneurial spirit were at their best and brightest (1614-1640).

Museum conservators and specialized researchers have spent the past four years subjecting each and every one of these works to thorough analysis. The results – at times surprising – are presented in an exhibition that situates these paintings in the context of their artistic genesis for the first time. Six sections, each devoted to a different aspect of the atelier, offer the visitor the perfect chance to discover the manner in which Rubens and his team set to work.
To give even more depth to this artistic context, the museum has secured the loan of some sixty additional paintings and drawings, most of them by the hand of Rubens himself. These works come from some of the most important museums in the world, including the Louvre (Paris), the Prado (Madrid) and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York).
The public will have the unique chance to discover Rubens’ artistic genius on the basis of nearly one hundred twenty works.