Helena Fourment

Contents

Helena (or Hélène) Fourment (11 April 1614 – 15 July 1673) was the second wife of Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens. She sat for a few portraits by Rubens, and also modeled for figures in Rubens' religious and mythological paintings.

Family

Helena Fourment was the youngest child of Daniël Fourment the elder, a wealthy Antwerp silk and tapestry merchant, and Clara Stappaerts. She had four brothers and six sisters. After his death, her father left to his son Daniël II an important collection of tapestries of Oudenaarde, Brussels and Antwerp, 35 paintings of his son-in-law Rubens, a large painting of Jordaens and several works of Italian masters.[1] Most of her sisters married into important families.

Daniel I Fourment, died 1643 : marr. Clara Stappaerts.[2]

First marriage

Helena Fourment married Rubens on 6 December 1630 in the Saint James Church in Antwerp,[3] when she was 16 years old and he was aged 53. Rubens' first wife, Isabella Brant, had died in 1626. Helena's brother Daniël Fourment the younger was married to Clara Brant, the sister of Isabella. Her father Daniël Fourment the elder was an art lover and possessed works by Rubens and Jacob Jordaens, and works by Italian masters; he also commissioned from Rubens a series of tapestries depicting the life of Achilles.[4]

Peter Paul Rubens, marr. 2nd to Helena Fourment:

Second marriage

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.[5] 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-Iago, outlived her and died during a diplomatic mission in Toulouse in 1681.[6]

Jean-Baptist de Brouchoven, 1st count of Bergeyck; married to Helena Fourment[7]

Helena died in Brussels in 1673 aged 59. She was buried together with her first husband, children and parents in the Saint James' Church in Antwerp. Amongst the many descendants of her grandson the 3rd Count of Bergeyck we find Louis de Brouchoven de Bergeyck and his great-granddaughter Stéphanie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.

Presence

Helena Fourment 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",[8] and by the poet Gaspar Gevartius, a friend of Rubens, who praised "Helen of Antwerp, who far surpasses Helen of Troy".[9]

Paintings

Helena Fourment

Portraits

  • Helena Fourment in wedding dress, Munich, Alte Pinakothek, 1630–1631; a studio copy of this work is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum
  • Portrait of Helena Fourment with a glove, Munich, Alte Pinakothek (same as above?)
  • Helena Fourment with her eldest son Frans, 1635, Munich, Alte Pinakothek
  • Rubens and Helena Fourment walking in their garden, Munich
  • Helena Fourment with her children Clara, Johanna and Frans, 1636-1637, Louvre
  • Helena Fourment and Frans Rubens, Louvre
  • Rubens, his wife Helena Fourment, and their son Peter Paul, c. 1639, Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Portrait of Helena Fourment(?) a studio work in the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels
  • Portrait of Helena Fourment(?) a 17th-century work from Antwerp, Rubenshuis

Model

  • Judgment of Paris, Museo del Prado (the Venus-figure is modelled on Helena Fourment)
  • The Garden of Love, Prado, 1630–1633
  • Het Pelsken, 1638, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
  • The Origin of the Milky Way, c. 1637

Siblings: Clara van Hecke née Fourment, and Susanna Lunden née Fourment

References

  1. 1.De Vlaemsche school: tijdschrift voor kunsten, letteren en wetenschappen, Volume 9:p. 142
  2. 2.De Vlaemsche school: tijdschrift voor kunsten, letteren en wetenschappen, Volume 9:p. 142
  3. 3.De Vlaemsche school: tijdschrift voor kunsten, letteren en wetenschappen, Volume 9:p. 142
  4. 4.Campbell, Thomas Patrick (2010). Tapestry in the Baroque. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 28. ISBN 9780300155143.
  5. 5.Knackfuss, H. (1904). Rubens. BoD – Books on Demand. p. 158. ISBN 9783954910489.
  6. 6.Biographie universelle, Bon - Bru, Volume 5
  7. 7.Jean Charles Joseph de Vegiano, Nobiliaire des Pays-Bas et du Comté de Bourgogne
  8. 8.Liedtke, Walter A. (1984). Flemish paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 177. ISBN 9780870993565.
  9. 9.Néret, Gilles (2004). "The Most Beautiful Woman in Antwerp". Peter Paul Rubens, 1577-1640. Taschen. ISBN 9783822828854.