Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) was a gutsy entrepreneur, a diplomat, a city-builder and an ingenious self-promoter. He’s also one of most the renowned painters in Western art – widely recognized for his dynamic, even cinematic, style.



Early Rubens is a revealing exhibition of works the Flemish master produced between 1609 and 1621, a crucial time that marks Rubens’s rise to prominence on the world stage. This period was significant both for Rubens’s development as an artist and the revitalization of Antwerp, a city known as the “gem of Belgium.” Rubens’s return to his birthplace of Antwerp in 1608, after studying in Italy for eight years, coincided with a period of relative peace for the war-torn city. These years would witness Rubens’s meteoric rise to fame – he forged invaluable connections with the city’s elites, built an active studio and established himself as the leading painter of the time and a driving force behind the city’s renewal.



Early Rubens is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Art Gallery of Ontario.