|
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (and possibly Jacob Jordaens) Sir Peter Paul Rubens Flemish, 1577 - 1640 Jacob Jordaens Flemish, 1593 - 1678 Deborah Kip, Wife of Sir Balthasar Gerbier, and Her Children, 1629/1630, reworked probably mid 1640s oil on canvas, 165.8 x 177.8 cm (65 1/4 x 70 in.) 200.34 x 211.14 x 14.6 cm (78 7/8 x 83 1/8 x 5 3/4 in.) Andrew W. Mellon Fund 1971.18.1 |
Object 8 of 8
While arranging a truce among the English, French, and Spanish in 1629, Rubens spent several months in London as the houseguest of Balthasar Gerbier, a Flemish-born art dealer and diplomatic courier. Gerbier's Dutch-born wife, Deborah Kip, appears here with four of their nine children. Elizabeth, the eldest, confronts the viewer with dignity; George holds back a curtain; and little Susan stares wide-eyed. (Susan so enchanted Rubens that he reused her figure to personify innocence in an allegorical picture.) The baby cannot be identified because the birth dates of the six youngest Gerbiers are not known.
Embracing the squirming baby, Deborah Kip's interlocked fingers lie near the center of the composition. Her encompassing arm aligns with an oval configuration that includes all the faces. Thus, a flowing motion links the family.
Seams in the canvas show that the original design consisted merely of the heads and torsos. When completing the work, probably after his return to Antwerp, Rubens altered some details and sewed extra strips of canvas to all four sides. These additions allowed space for full-length figures, the exotic and expensive parrot, and the garden arbor with its mermaid columns.
| « | back to gallery |