Peter Paul Rubens Quotes about Art

Peter Paul Rubens was a famous German-born Flemish painter associated with the Baroque art movement. He is best known for his depictions of large, rounded, sensuous, fleshy women. Famous Peter Paul Rubens artworks include “Descent from the Cross”, “Portrait of Anna of Austria, Queen of France”, “The Feast of Venus”, “Venus at the Mirror”, “The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus”, “Portrait of Ambrogio Spinola”, “Landscape with the Ruins of Mount Palatine in Rome”, “The Three Graces”, “Helena Fourment in Wedding Dress”, “Venus and Adonis”, “Venus, Cupid, Bacchus and Ceres” and “Ermit and sleeping Angelica”.

Mini biography: Born Peter Paul Rubens on the 28th of June, 1577 in Siegen, Nassau, Westphalia, Germany. His mother was Maria Pypelincks and his father Jan Rubens was a magistrate. Rubens married Isabella Brant in 1609 and they had three children together: Clara, Nikolaas and Albert Rubens. Isabella died in 1626 at the age of 31. Rubens married his second wife Helena Fourment in 1630 and they had one child: Peter Paul Rubens III. The artist died on the 30th of May, 1640 in Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands (Belgium) at the age of 62. Peter Paul Rubens is buried at the St. James’ Church, Antwerp, Belgium.

List of Famous Peter Paul Rubens Art Quotes

The Archduke and the Most Serene Infanta have had letters written urging me to remain in their service. The offers are very generous but I have little desire to become a courtier again. Peter Paul Rubens

I decided to force myself to cut this golden knot of ambition in order to recover my liberty. Realizing that a retirement of this sort must be made while one is rising and not falling; that one must leave Fortune while she is still favorable. Peter Paul Rubens

I am by nature and inclination a peaceful man, the sworn enemy to disputes, lawsuits and quarrels both public and private. Peter Paul Rubens

I have neither time to live nor to write. I am therefore cheating my art by stealing a few evening hours to write this most inadequate and negligent reply to the courteous and elegant letters of yours. Peter Paul Rubens

I was not yet inclined to live the life of a celibate. I have taken a young wife of honest but middle-class family although everyone tried to persuade me to make a court marriage. But I feared pride, that inherent vice of the nobility, particularly in that sex, and that is why I chose one who would not blush to see me take my brushes in hand. And to tell the truth it would have been hard for me to exchange the priceless treasure of liberty for the embraces of an old woman. Peter Paul Rubens

Art Quotes About Peter Paul Rubens

We returned to Flanders to see the masterpieces of Rubens. They were hung much more advantageously than they have been since in Paris, for they all produce a wonderful effect in those Flemish churches. Other works by the same master adorn some private galleries. In one of them, at Antwerp, I found the famous “Straw Hat,” which has lately been sold to an Englishman for a large sum. This admirable picture represents a woman by Rubens. It delighted and inspired me to such a degree that I made a portrait of myself at Brussels, striving to obtain the same effects. I painted myself with a straw hat on my head, a feather, and a garland of wild flowers, holding my palette in my hand. And when the portrait was exhibited at the Salon I feel free to confess that it added considerably to my reputation. Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Quotes

Color adds ornament to a painting; but it is nothing but the handmaiden, because all it does is to render more agreeable the true perfections of the art. Rubens and Van Dyck can be pleasing at first sight, but they are deceptive; they are from the poor school of colorists, the school of deception. Never use bright colors, they are anti-historic. It is better to fall into gray than to into bright colors. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Quotes

I am emphatically of opinion that the best art of modern times is as good as any of its kind that has gone before, and furthermore, that the best art of England can hold its own against the world. It is manifestly impossible to make just comparisons between the widely divergent styles of the Ancient and Modern Masters, or to attempt to strike a balance between, say, Rubens and Hogarth; but to say that the old alone is good betrays great lack of judgment, and is an ingratitude to the living. John Everett Millais Quotes

Peter Paul Rubens Self-Portrait Painting

More on Famous Flemish Painter Peter Paul Rubens

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Related or similar popular artists and celebrities include: Rembrandt, Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, Goya and other Famous German Artists.