Rubens with his Wife and Child

Rubens with his Wife and Child

James McArdell

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rubens enjoyed a high reputation in Great Britain throughout the eighteenth century, and prints after his work were published in large numbers. McArdell's mezzotint of Rubens's own family was the first of two such prints published in London after the charming domestic subject; the other was by Charles Phillips. This print is a proof, without lettering, made available for collectors aside from the main edition and one of the latter is also in the Met's collection (24.63.107). The large full-length group portrait was first owned by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722), it then remained in the family through the late nineteenth century and is now in the Met's collection (1981.238). The artist, his wife Helena, and one of their sons appear within an idealized version of the garden at Rubens's mansion in Antwerp, which survives to this day.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rubens with his Wife and ChildRubens with his Wife and ChildRubens with his Wife and ChildRubens with his Wife and ChildRubens with his Wife and Child

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.