Helena Fourment

Helena Fourment, circa 1630, by Jan Boeckhorst

Helena Fourment or Hélène Fourment (11 April 1614 – 15 July 1673) was the second wife of Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens. She was the subject of a few portraits by Rubens, and also modeled for other religious and mythological paintings.

Biography

Hélène Fourment was the daughter of Daniël Fourment, an Antwerp silk merchant, and Clara Stappaerts. They had four sons and seven daughters, including Clara (born 1593) and Susanna (1599-1628), who were both also painted by Rubens.[1] Hélène was the youngest of the 11 Fourment children.

Hélène Fourment married Rubens on 6 December 1630, when she was 16 years old and he was aged 53. His first wife, Isabella Brant, had died in 1626. Hélène's brother Daniël Fourment the younger was married to Clara Brant, the sister of Isabella. Daniël Fourment the elder was an art lover and possessed works by Rubens and Jacob Jordaens, and works by Italian masters; he also commissioned from Rubens a series of tapestries depicting the life of Achilles.[2]

Rubens and Hélène Fourment had five children:

After the death of Rubens, Helena started a relationship with Jan-Baptist van Brouchoven, assessor and alderman of Antwerp, who later became Count of Bergeyk.[3] On 9 October 1644 their son Jan van Brouchoven, the later second Count of Bergeyk and one of the most important politicians in the Southern Netherlands of his time, was born, and Helena and Jan-Baptist married in 1645. They had five further children together.

Hélène Fourment was said to be very beautiful, amongst others by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria, then Governor of the Netherlands, stating that she was "undoubtedly the most beautiful one may see here",[4] and by the poet Jan Caspar Gevaerts, a friend of Rubens, who praised "Helen of Antwerp, who far surpasses Helen of Troy".[5]

Paintings

Helena Fourment

Portraits

Model

Siblings: Clara van Hecke née Fourment, and Susanna Lunden née Fourment

Notes

  1. ↑ Fahy, Everett (1973). The Wrightsman Collection. 5. Paintings, drawings. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 196. ISBN 9780870990120.
  2. ↑ Campbell, Thomas Patrick (2010). Tapestry in the Baroque. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 28. ISBN 9780300155143.
  3. ↑ Knackfuss, H. (1904). Rubens. p. 158.
  4. ↑ Liedtke, Walter A. Flemish paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 177. ISBN 9780870993565.
  5. ↑ Néret, Gilles (2004). "The Most Beautiful Woman in Antwerp". Peter Paul Rubens, 1577-1640. Taschen. ISBN 9783822828854.

Further reading

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