01 work, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Flemish School's Helena Fourment, with Footnotes. #111

Flemish School

Helena Fourment, circa 1700

Oil on canvas

77.2 x 63.8cm (30 3/8 x 25 1/8in)

Private collection

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.

Helena was the youngest child of Daniël I Fourment, a wealthy Antwerp silk and carpet merchant, and Clara Stappaerts.

Helena Fourment married Rubens when she was 16 years old and he was aged 53. His first wife, Isabella Brant, had died in 1626.  Her father was an art lover and possessed works by Rubens and Jacob Jordaens, and works by Italian masters. They had four sons and seven daughters. 

After the death of Rubens, Helena started a relationship with Jean-Baptiste de Brouchoven, assessor and alderman of Antwerp, who later became 1st Count of Bergeyk. On 9 October 1644 their first son Jean de Brouchoven, 2nd Count of Bergeyck, was born, and Helena and Jean-Baptist married in 1645. Her second husband, who was a military knight of St-Jacques, died during a diplomatic mission in Toulouse in 1681. 

Helena was buried together with her first husband, children and parents in the Saint James' church, Antwerp. Most of her sisters married into important families. 

She 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" and by the poet Gaspar Gevartius, a friend of Rubens, who praised "Helen of Antwerp, who far surpasses Helen of Troy" More on Helena Fourment

Flemish painting flourished from the early 15th century until the 17th century. Flanders delivered the leading painters in Northern Europe and attracted many promising young painters from neighbouring countries. These painters were invited to work at foreign courts and had a Europe-wide influence. Since the end of the Napoleonic era, Flemish painters had again been contributing to a reputation that had been set by the Old Masters. More Flemish School

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