Portrait of the Artist

This painting seems to have been something of a face-saver. In 1621 Rubens supplied Lord Danvers with 'Lion Hunt' (now lost), a studio work, not knowing that it was intended for Charles, Prince of Wales. Danvers had it sent back as 'a peese scarse touched by his own hand'. Rubens seems to have planned with Lord Danvers to make a peace offering to the Prince the moment he realised his mistake. Later Rubens claimed that he was concerned at the arrogance of sending a self-portrait under these circumstances: 'it did not seem fitting to send my portrait to a prince of such high rank, but he overcame my modesty' (Rubens, letter of 10 January 1625; to Palamède de Fabri, Sieur de Valavez; 1582 - 1645). The most important thing, however, was that the work should be executed by Rubens and not his assistants: Lord Danvers wrote to William Trumbull in Brussels, asking 'for his owne picture made originall and every part of it wrought with his owne hand' (letter of 18 December 1622). Danvers adds in the same letter that this is a self-portrait 'which I heare hee hath made alreadie'; it is difficult to know if this means that Rubens redirected an existing (obviously recent) self-portrait, or whether enough progress had been made on the portrait which Danvers himself instigated (through some previous, now lost, instruction) for word to get out that it was 'made alreadie'. Whatever the explanation, the portrait is signed and dated 1623 and seems to have arrived in London in that year. This is an interesting piece of self-promotion; it does not advertise Rubens's invention, figure drawing or story-telling, important elements of his art. Instead we see purely pictorial qualities at their most intense: contrast of light and dark, with shades of deep black and a softly luminous face; strong accents of colour on the face and sky (again contrasting with the areas of black); variations of paint application from thinly scrubbed areas in the background, where brown underpaint shows through, to the thick, mobile rivers of oil paint, drawn by the brush, over the face. Rubens's 'owne hand' is obviously and everywhere at work'. The objects in the background of this portrait could be described as 'a rock and a reddening sky', which, in Latin, would read, Petrus et caelum rubens. It has been suggested that the artist included them as a play on his own name (reinforcing the Latin signature), or indeed that the whole portrait depicts a shame-faced, blushing or rubens Rubens. Signed, dated and inscribed along top right margin: Petrus Paullus Rubens / se ipsum expressit / A.D MDCXXIII / Aetatis Suae XXXXV