Copy after "Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment (1614–1673), and Their Son Frans (1633–1678)" by Bernard Lens III

Bernard Lens III · 1721-01-01

What you're looking at is a copy, but one made by a royal miniaturist who couldn't resist adding his own touches. "Copy after Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment, and Their Son Frans" was painted in 1721 by Bernard Lens III and now lives at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Rubens's original family portrait already carries weight: his young wife Helena, their toddler Frans dressed like a miniature adult, and the painter's own sidelong presence. Lens reproduces it all, but inserts a vivid red-and-green macaw and a cascading branch of white blossoms, neither exists in the Rubens source. Parrots were luxury imports in 18th-century England, status symbols of global reach, while the perpetual bloom softly flatters Helena's youth.

Lens himself served as miniature painter to George I and George II and taught the royal children. Here, he's translating Baroque bravura into a smaller, more decorative Rococo key. The Met's collection preserves this curious object, neither pure homage nor pure invention, in which an English artist gently rewrote a Flemish master's family album.

Details

But look closely at the man on the left.

Beside him, his wife Helena and their son Frans.

Their hands touch at the wrist, a rare show of marital affection.

But this isn't the Rubens original. It's a copy from 1721.

The copyist added this flowering branch and this macaw.

Transcript

An opulent 17th-century family portrait. But look closely at the man on the left. That is Peter Paul Rubens himself. Beside him, his wife Helena and their son Frans. Their hands touch at the wrist, a rare show of marital affection. But this isn't the Rubens original. It's a copy from 1721. The copyist added this flowering branch and this macaw.