_Rubens_ (Flemish: 1577-1640). _See 38._
One of the best known and most be-copied pictures in the Gallery. Its
fame among artists "depends to no slight extent on its being a _tour
de force_. The head is painted in reflected light, so as to come as
near as may be to Queen Elizabeth's _shadowless_ ideal" (Armstrong:
_Notes on the National Gallery_, p. 31). "No one who has not beheld
this masterpiece of painting can form any conception," says Dr. Waagen,
"of the transparency and brilliancy with which the local colours in the
features and complexion, though under the shadow of a broad-brimmed
hat, are brought out and made to tell, while the different parts are
rounded and relieved, with the finest knowledge and use of reflected
lights." The expression of the subject is as much a _tour de force_ as
the technical treatment--
I know a maiden fair to see,
Take care!...
She gives a side-glance and looks down,
Beware! beware!...
She has a bosom as white as snow,
Take care!
She knows how much it is best to show,
Beware! beware!
Trust her not,
She is fooling thee!
LONGFELLOW: from the German.
The picture is a portrait of Susanne Fourment, an elder sister of
Rubens's second wife, Helène Fourment. Susanne often sat to Rubens;
other paintings and drawings of her by his hand exist. She afterwards
married Arnold Lunden. The picture remained in the possession of the
painter until his death, when it passed into that of Nicholas Lunden,
who had married Isabella, a daughter of Rubens by his second wife,
Helène Fourment. The picture remained in the Lunden family until 1822,
when it was sold by auction for 36,000 florins and brought to England.
After being offered in vain to George IV., it was bought by Sir Robert
Peel for 3500 guineas. Why and when this picture of a lady in a beaver
hat acquired the inappropriate title of "Chapeau de Paille" ("The Straw
Hat"), by which it has hitherto been called, is unknown. Perhaps the
title is a corruption of "Chapeau d'Espagne." An entirely different
story about the picture was current in the Lunden family. According
to this not very probable tradition, Miss Susanne had refused to sit
to Rubens, so he painted her unawares whilst she was in her garden,
wearing a large straw hat. When the picture was done, she pardoned the
flattering indiscretion and accepted it as a gift. Rubens afterwards
begged leave to take back the portrait, promising in return a work
in which he would put all his talent. This was a _replica_ of the
same portrait, but instead of a straw hat (_chapeau de paille_) he
introduced in the second version the beaver hat (_chapeau de poil_)
that we see. The Lunden family had christened the original "Chapeau
de Paille," and the present picture has ever since retained the same
title. (See letter in the _Times_, August 6, 1886, from M. Jules Nollée
de Noduwez, himself a connection of the Lunden family).