Rubens & Women

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★★★★★ "This show is just heavenly" Evening Standard
★★★★★ "A riotous feast" The Guardian
★★★★ The Daily Telegraph
★★★★ The Times

“Dulwich Picture Gallery’s delightful, modestly scaled new exhibition, achieves what decades of blockbuster shows have failed to do: it wins sympathy for Rubens the intimate, sincere, convincing artist of the heart.” Financial Times 

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See another side to Peter Paul Rubens and the powerful women who inspired him.

Rubens & Women, a major exhibition of the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), will unite over 40 paintings and drawings from the artist's career. The exhibition will be the first to challenge the popular assumption that Rubens painted only one type of woman, providing instead a more nuanced view of the artist who painted more portraits of his wives and children than almost any other, even Rembrandt. The exhibition reveals the varied and important place occupied by women, both real and imagined, in his world.

A diverse range of Rubens's masterpieces along with archive material will reveal the essential ways in which Rubens’s relationships with women nourished his creativity and career – from the role played by his female patrons and family members to his profound faith, artistic beliefs, and great loves. Featuring masterpieces from international and private collections, many of which will be appearing in the UK for the first time, this landmark exhibition will reconsider one of art history’s most influential figures.

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Images: Peter Paul Rubens, Marchesa Maria Serra Pallavicino, 1606, oil on canvas, 233.7 x 144.8 cm. ©National Trust Images/James Dobson