National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Deborah Kip, Wife of Sir Balthasar Gerbier, and Her Children
  • Overview
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

A man of great integrity, probity, and discretion, Rubens was often entrusted with delicate diplomatic missions which could be accomplished under cover of his activities as an artist. So it was that in an effort to secure peace between Spain and England he spent, in 1629, several months in London as the guest of Balthasar Gerbier, himself a diplomatic agent, artist, and advisor to the Duke of Buckingham. Gerbier's wife, Deborah Kip, was the daughter of a well-to-do member of the Dutch community in London.

Deborah Kip and four of her children are shown on a terrace elaborately appointed with entwined caryatids who support a bower, a setting that indicates the status of the family group. Further richness is evident in Deborah Kip's elegantly embroidered skirt and lustrous blouse and cap. Perched on the back of her chair is a blue-gray parrot, a symbol of aristocratic wealth and an allusion, in Christian art, to the perfect mother, the Virgin Mary. At the rear George holds back a curtain; Elizabeth, dressed entirely in black, is serene and composed; and Susan rests her arms on her mother's knee and tilts her head, returning our gaze. Despite the elegant setting and the bravura brushwork, Rubens controlled the composition so that we are not allowed to lose sight of the tender relationship between a mother and her children.

Inscription

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Marks and Labels

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Provenance

Possibly Hélène Fourment [1614-1673], widow of the artist, Antwerp, by 1646; possibly John Robartes, 1st earl of Radnor [1606-1685], Lord Privy Seal to Charles II, London; possibly by inheritance to his son, Charles Bodville Robartes, 2nd earl of Radnor [1660-1723], London; (his sale, at his residence, London, 22-29 April 1724, no. 86, as by Van Dyck);[1] Thomas Scawen, London;[2] (his sale, at his residence, London, 25-28 January 1743, no. 49, bought in, possibly by Mr. Borroughs, a relative of Thomas Scawen);[3] "A Gent of the Law"; Sampson Gideon, Esq. [1699-1762], Belvedere, Erith, Kent, before 1755;[4] by inheritance to his son, Sir Sampson Gideon [assumed surname Eardley in 1789], 1st and last baron Spalding [1745-1824], Belvedere; by inheritance to his daughter, Charlotte-Elizabeth, and her husband, Sir Culling Smith, 2nd bt. [1768-1829], Belvedere; by inheritance to their son, Sir Culling Eardley Smith, 3rd bt. [later Sir Culling Eardley Eardley, 1805-1863], Belvedere, and Bedwell Park, near Hatfield, Hertfordshire; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 30 June 1860, no. 21, bought in);[5] by inheritance to his daughters, Frances Selena Eardley [Mrs. Culling Hanbury], Bedwell Park, and Isabella Maria Eardley [Mrs. William Henry Freemantle, d. 1901]; by inheritance, by 1927, to Colonel Francis E. Fremantle and Edward V.E. Fremantle, Esq.; purchased 5 August 1971 through (Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London) by NGA.

[1] George Vertue witnessed the sale and recorded it in his correspondence. See Clovis Whitfield, "Balthasar Gerbier, Rubens, and George Vertue," Studies in the History of Art (1973): 25. Whitfield also notes that the painting may have been in the collection of the 11th earl of Radnor who, according to Samuel Pepys (diary reference 30 September 1661), had "two very fine pictures in the gallery" of his residence, Danvers House, in Chelsea, London.

[2] George Vertue notes that Scawen bought the painting at the Radnor sale. See Whitfield 1973, 27.

[3] The painting was possibly bought in at the Scawen sale and then bought afterwards by a Mr. Burroughs. See Whitfield 1973, 25, and Michael Jaffé, "Rubens's Madame Gerbier and Her Children," in A Dealer's Record: Agnew's 1967-1981, London, 1981: 75.

[4] Recorded in the possession of Gideon by James McArdell, who made a mezzotint copy of the work in 1755. He reports seeing it at Belvedere, Gideon's house in Kent. See Whitfield 1973, and Jaffé 1981, 75, who misdates the mezzotint as 1735. Thomas B.M. Martyn, The English connoisseur: containing an account of whatever is curious in painting, sculpture, & c., in the palaces and the seats of the nobility and principal gentry of England, both in town and country, 2 vols., London, 1766: 1:13, lists the painting among those at Belvedere House as "A Dutch Woman and her three Children" by "Sir Ant. More."

[5] The painting was apparently bought in by a Mr. Ward, whom Jaffé feels was an assumed name. Despite the high price the painting realized at the sale the work remained with the family by inheritance until its purchase by the NGA. See Jaffé 1981, 75. Whitfield 1973, 26, mentions, but does not elaborate on the identity of Mr. Ward.

Exhibition History

1859
Old Masters, British Institution, London, 1859, no. 46.
1862
Old Masters, British Institution, London, 1862, no. 113.
1902
Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters including a Special Collection of Paintings and Drawings by Claude. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1902, no. 124.
1927
Loan Exhibition of Flemish & Belgian Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1927, no. 145.
1945
Loan to display with permanent collection, Birmingham (England) Museum and Art Gallery, 1945-1951.
1992
From El Greco to Cezanne: Masterpieces of European Painting from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metroplitan Museum of Art, New York, National Gallery of Greece, Athens, 1992-1993, no. 7, repro.
2004
A House of Art: Rubens as Collector, Rubenshuis, Antwerp, 2004, no. 58, repro.

Bibliography

1973
Buck, Richard D. "Rubens's The Gerbier Family: Examination and Treatment." Studies in the History of Art 5 (1973): 32-53, repro.
1973
Feller, Robert L. "Rubens's The Gerbier Family: Technical Examination of the Pigments and Paint Layers." Studies in the History of Art v.5 (1973):54-74.
1973
Keisch, Bernard and Robert C. Callahan. "Rubens's The Gerbier Family: Investigation by Lead Isotope Mass Spectrometry." Studies in the History of Art v.5 (1973):75-78.
1973
Stechow, Wolfgang. "Peter Paul Rubens's Deborah Kip, Wife of Sir Balthasar Gerbier, and Her Children." Studies in the History of Art 5 (1973): 6-22, repro.
1973
Whitfield, Clovis. "Balthasar Gerbier, Rubens, and George Vertue." Studies in the History of Art v.5 (1973):23-31.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 316, repro.
1979
Watson, Ross. National Gallery of Art. London, 1979: 66, pl. 50, color repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 254, no. 323, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 362, repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 52, repro.
1993
Powell, Earl A. III. "Foreword." Studies in the History of Art 41 (1993): 9.
2005
Wheelock, Jr., Arthur K. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 196-205, color repro.

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