Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish 1577-1640)
Portrait of a Man with Sword, c. 1598/99
Oil on canvas, 38-1/2 x 27 inches
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Portrait of a Man with Sword was painted early in Rubens's career, shortly after he enrolled in the Antwerp painters' guild and began work as an independent artist. It is one of only a handful of works that can be placed in the two-year period before Rubens began a lengthy stay in Italy, in 1600. This brief interval is, perhaps, the least documented span in the master's remarkable career.

The portrait presents the artist's detailed vision of an aristocratic sitter who, despite his grave demeanor, conveys an immediate and tangible presence. The three-quarter-length presentation and the man's serious gaze recall the work of Anthonis Mor, the most influential Netherlandish portraitist of the preceding generation. However, Mor's sitters show a psychological remoteness and attenuated elegance that Rubens did not adopt. Instead, the young painter captures a far more relaxed and accessible personality and a weighty, more robust form. Even in this youthful work, Rubens has already begun to liberate Flemish portraiture from its earlier cold conventions, infusing it with a vigor and intensity that forecast the fully Baroque manner of his mature art.


  • european painting & SCULPTURE >

  • dutch & flemish painting >

©2008 Chrysler Museum of Art Copyright Info

245 West Olney Road, Norfolk, Virginia 23510 757.664.6200