Landscapes. Émile Michel

Delacroix remarks, “Specialists, who have only one branch of work are often inferior to those who, taking in everything from a high standpoint, bring into the one branch remarkable grandeur although they may not have the same perfection of detail, Rubens and Titian, in their landscapes, are examples of this.”

      Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Hunters in the Snow (Winter), 1565.

      Oil on oak, 117 × 162 cm.

      Gemäldegalerie, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna.

      Although he loved nature passionately, Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) did not paint pure landscape until very late. We know what a beneficent and lasting influence the eight years spent in Italy (1600–1608), at the beginning of his career exercised over him. Although he certainly learnt much there, he did not change his methods. Before leaving Flanders he was in possession of the technique to which he would be faithful his whole life. He was quite aware of its excellence, and although he was constantly seeking to improve, he did not attempt to modify its essential principles. His technique was that of his predecessors, the best Antwerp painters, in particular that of the elder Bruegel, for whom he had a special admiration. Rubens had more delicacy and suppleness, but he also had the same virile qualities, the firm drawing and the clear, strong values. It will be readily understood that he reaped great benefit both from the study of the masterpieces and from his interaction with artists in Rome and at the Court of Mantua during his various visits to Italy.

      Rubens conceived, there and then, an admiration for Titian which lasted all his life. During his stay in Italy he had no leisure for studying nature. On his return to Antwerp, he was cordially welcomed by his fellow-countrymen and by those in power, and his time was very much occupied. He fully realised the benefit to be derived from a closer study of nature, and, notebook in hand, would go out for this purpose. It was all he could do, however, to get a few rough sketches of such plants for the foreground of his pictures. When, by chance, he was able to escape from the town, he delighted to express, in a picture, the impressions he had enjoyed in the country.

      Loving his work and his home, Rubens soon felt the need of having that home. He bought the house in which he lived, transformed it into a princely residence, which comprised his own studio and one for his pupils, and a rotunda built in the Italian style for his collections of every kind. These were arranged in good order and additions were constantly made to them.

      In spite of his desire to remain at this base, where there was so much to attract and fascinate him, politics, which had more than once tempted him to neglect his art, now began to absorb his attention again. The Archduchess, who appreciated his intelligence and his reliability, appealed to his devotion to undertake certain delicate missions. It was only at rare intervals that he could return to his work. His prominent position caused him all kinds of inconveniences. His talent, his kindliness, the charm of his conversation, his influential friends throughout Europe, and the artistic treasures he had accumulated in his house, attracted numerous visitors and led to the disturbance of his tranquillity. His diplomatic missions obliged him to spend several years abroad. Finally he begged the Archduchess to allow him to relinquish occupations which interfered with his art and even with his health. In order to have a more settled life, he now decided to spend the best season of the year in the country.

      In the landscapes that were directly inspired by nature, Rubens shows all the originality of his genius. The impressions he has depicted are very different from those we find in the landscapists of that epoch. Without concerning himself with them, Rubens endeavoured to express all that interested him personally in the country, but although he respected the simplicity of the subjects he chose, he did not attempt to copy them literally. Unconsciously he put into his pictures something of the epic sense within him, which elevated and transformed them.

      Velvet Brueghel (Jan Brueghel the Elder), The Vision of Saint Hubert, 1615–1630.

      Oil on wood, 63 × 100 cm.

      Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

      Peter Paul Rubens, Landscape with Stone Carriers, c.1620.

      Oil on canvas, 86 × 126.5 cm.

      The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

      Peter Paul Rubens, Landscape with a Rainbow, 1636–1638.

      Oil on canvas, 86 × 130 cm.

      The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

      Each of his pictures, interesting as it was in itself, had its own special meaning in a series which included all the most characteristic aspects of the landscape. These pictures were varied by the points of view, the differences in the sky, the hour of day, and by the succession of work which the change of season demanded.

      Above everything, Rubens loved to paint the summer, with its fertility and magnificence. He has given us a large number of landscapes, the subjects being taken from the country around Steen. These pictures, therefore, must date from towards the end of his career.

      The Return from the Fields is very interesting. Under a sky tinged by the gleams of the setting sun, the vast Flemish plain, with its woods and meadows, its villages half hidden by greenery, stretches out to the bluish horizon. In the distance is the town of Malines, dominated by the Saint-Rombaut steeple. The sun, which is just disappearing, lights up the whole country with its last rays. In the midst of the increased activity which, at this moment, seems to animate the scene, the peace of approaching night is suggested, and one feels that in the cool air the vague fragrance of the freshly-cut hay fills the atmosphere. Very different, but perhaps still more natural, is the impression of that Landscape with a Rainbow. Here, too, summer, with all its splendour of colouring, is depicted. The ripe, golden corn presents a strong contrast to the green of the meadows, whose brilliancy is more vivid after the rain, while the treetops, lit up by the sun, stand out against the sombre clouds on which is seen the huge curve of the rainbow.

      The importance which Rubens gives to the changing aspects of the sky is quite an innovation. No other artist had thought of representing the great combats of the clouds and their perpetual transformations. It was not only the falling of the snow or the appearance of the rainbow after the storm that he painted. All the various phenomena of light and all the atmospheric disturbances attracted his attention and tempted his brush. In his picture of the Cart Stuck in the Mire, also referred to as The Storm, we see the owners of the cart endeavouring to extricate it from the furrows in which it is wedged. They are evidently in a hurry, as night is approaching and the road is rough. The mysterious twilight, so dear to contemporary landscapists, had never inspired artists before Rubens, and he expresses its poetical vagueness with exquisite charm. His predecessors had rarely been tempted to portray the solemn calm of the starry night.

      In each of these landscapes, the figures or animals, in lifelike attitudes, always seem to be in just the right place. They characterise the picture or relieve its tone by an effective touch, such as the white of a horse, or the bright blue or red of a skirt. In one picture two men are sawing a tree, a fowler has spread his nets, and two ladies and a horseman half hidden in the shrubs are waiting to see the birds captured.

      Peter Paul Rubens, Return of the Peasants from the Fields, 1635.

      Oil on wood, 121 × 194 cm.

      Palazzo Pitti, Florence.

      Profitable though absolute freedom and mental repose would have been to Rubens during the last years of his life, he was not able to spend as much time in his home at Steen as he would have liked. Certain unavoidable obligations compelled him to return to Antwerp. He had more orders than he could execute from Philip IV, and died in the midst of completing them. At the end of the summer of 1639 he left Steen, where he had been to recuperate, and this was the last he saw of his home, for on the 30th of May, 1640, he died after great suffering. The very name of Rubens suffices, in our days, to express the loss to art occasioned by his death.

      Even