Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
The Artist´s Sons, Albert (1614-1657) and Nikolaus (1618-1655) Rubens, c. 1626/27
Oil on wood
height 157 cm, width 93 cm
Provenance: after 1640 in the possession of Albert Rubens; 1733 identified by seal as entail Sammlungen des Fürsten von und zu Liechtenstein, Vaduz - Wien
Inv.-no. GE 114

Rubens captured his sons Albert and Nikolaus Rubens in a double portrait in c. 1626/27. Like his daughter Clara Serena, these two children were from his first marriage, to Isabella Brant, and were around thirteen and nine years old respectively at the time. Nikolaus (1618-1655), the younger, still seems quite uninhibited. He ignores the viewer and is preoccupied with his goldfinch, which he has tethered to a ribbon, a popular children´s game. In contrast to his younger brother, Albert (1614-1657) seems serious, almost adult, and a little precocious, not least because of his distinguished clothing and the casual elegance of his pose. His father encouraged him to read and furthered his classical education. The boy published his first poem in Latin at the age of thirteen; the book in his hand definitely refers to his scholarly nature. Albert Rubens ultimately became one of the most highly respected scholars of the Graeco-Roman world of his day. The contrast between the two brothers may be due to their different ages and characters. Possibly yet another level of meaning is concealed in the picture: in his treatise on the most famous Greek painters, Pliny wrote that Parrhasius, the master of eloquent expression, painted two boys embodying the tranquillity of nature (securitas) and also the innocence (simplicitas) of that age. Perhaps Rubens was trying to imply this theme in his portrait of his sons.