Deborah Kip, Wife of Sir Balthasar Gerbier, and Her Children
1629/1630, reworked probably mid 1640s
Painter, Flemish, 1577 - 1640
Painter, Flemish, 1593 - 1678

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) was one of the greatest masters of the 17th century and a man of great integrity, probity, and discretion. The growth of his international artistic reputation was paralleled by his increased involvement in European politics. During the 1620s, Rubens was entrusted with delicate diplomatic missions at the behest of the Archduchess Isabella, the regent who governed the Spanish Netherlands for the King of Spain, Philip IV, which could be accomplished under the cover of his activities as an artist.
Rubens's most important diplomatic venture occurred in 1627, in the middle of the Thirty Years' War, when he traveled to Spain in an effort to bring about a peaceful resolution to the ongoing hostilities that had seriously affected the Netherlands. He was received by Philip IV, and then sent to London as an emissary of the king. In London, he stayed for several months with his friend Balthasar Gerbier and his family in their living quarters along the Thames. Rubens may have conceived of the portrait of Gerbier's wife Deborah Kip, the daughter of a well-to-do member of London's Dutch community, as a potential gift in gratitude for the couple's hospitality or as a souvenir for himself.
Deborah Kip and four of her children are shown on a terrace elaborately appointed with entwined caryatids that support a bower, a setting that points to the family's elevated status. Their prosperity is also evident in Deborah Kip's elegantly embroidered skirt and lustrous blouse and cap. Perched on her chair is a blue-gray parrot, a symbol of aristocratic wealth and an allusion in Christian art to the Virgin Mary, the perfect mother. As she holds the baby on her lap, son 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 returns our gaze. Despite the elegant setting and the bravura brushwork, Rubens controlled the composition so that the tender relationship between the mother and her children remains the focus.
Rubens initially painted the family group at the core of the composition on a vertical rectangular central piece of canvas, to which he—perhaps while still in England— added strips on all four sides in preparation for the almost square final composition. When Rubens returned to Antwerp in April 1630, he took the still-unfinished family portrait with him. The painting, which remained in his possession, was probably completed by Jacob Jordaens after Rubens's death in 1640. An expanded copy from the Rubens workshop, one that Balthasar Gerbier almost certainly commissioned for his personal collection, is in the Royal Collection, Windsor Castle.
Around 1600, the young Rubens, who had been trained in classical ideals and philosophy, had traveled from Antwerp to Italy to experience firsthand its artistic traditions. He sought to understand not only antiquity and the Renaissance, including the work of Raphael and Michelangelo, but also contemporary artists such as Caravaggio. The inspiration he gained from this multifaceted exposure profoundly affected his own style of painting and became the foundation for his future work. Rubens returned to Antwerp in 1609, at the time of the Twelve Years' Truce, and became court painter to the regents in the Southern Netherlands, Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella. It was a period of peace and prosperity, and Rubens, who was devoutly Catholic, received many commissions for religious works, including large altarpieces. He established a large workshop and developed close working relationships with other important masters, including Anthony van Dyck. When Rubens travelled to Spain in 1627, he saw many great paintings by Titian, the 16th century Venetian master. Titian's softly luminous paintings greatly influenced Rubens's late style, particularly portraits, such as this remarkable painting of Deborah Kip and her children.

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 43
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 165.8 x 177.8 cm (65 1/4 x 70 in.)
framed: 200.34 x 211.14 x 14.61 cm (78 7/8 x 83 1/8 x 5 3/4 in.) -
Accession
1971.18.1
Artwork history & notes
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.
Associated Names
- Fourment, Hélène
- Robartes, 1st earl of Radnor, John
- Robartes, 2nd earl of Radnor, Charles Bodville
- Scawen, Thomas
- Sale, London
- Gideon, Sampson
- Eardley, 1st baron Spalding, Sampson, Sir
- Smith, 2nd bt., Culling, Sir
- Eardley, 3rd bt., Culling Eardley, Sir
- Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
- Fremantle, Isabella Maria Eardley
- Hanbury, Frances Selena Eardley
- Fremantle, Edward V.E.
- Fremantle, Francis E., Colonel
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd.
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 Cézanne: 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.
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.
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.
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.
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. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 66, pl. 50.
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.
2004
Boehrer, Bruce Thomas. Parrot Culture: Our 2,500-Year-Long Fascination with the World's Most Talkative Bird. Philadelphia, 2004: 73, 76, fig. 19.
2005
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Flemish Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2005: 196-205, color repro.
2013
Harris, Neil. Capital Culture: J. Carter Brown, the National Gallery of Art, and the Reinvention of the Museum Experience. Chicago and London, 2013: 226-227; 233, 235, 253.
2020
Libby, Alexandra. “From Personal Treasures to Public Gifts: The Flemish Painting Collection at the National Gallery of Art.” In America and the Art of Flanders: Collecting Paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and their Circles, edited by Esmée Quodbach. The Frick Collection Studies in the History of Art Collecting in America 5. University Park, 2020: 139-140; 188 nt. 41.
Wikidata ID
Q20177090