Rubens and His Legacy

Peter Paul Rubens has been described as the “prince of painters”. A bold claim? Judge for yourself at this, the first major overview of his work and legacy.

Rubens and His Legacy brings together masterpieces produced during his lifetime, as well as major works by great artists who were influenced by him in the generations that followed. We see the influence of Rubens in the prints of Picasso and Rembrandt, in the portraiture of Van Dyck, in the hunting scenes and devotional works of Delacroix, and in the landscapes of Constable and Gainsborough. It is a far reaching and remarkable legacy.

Rubens, best known for his fleshy nude women, also embraced a broad array of subjects, from religious and mythological scenes to landscapes and portraits. We look at each of these areas through the lens of six themes; power, lust, compassion, elegance, poetry and violence.

Set to be one of the biggest spectacles of 2015, this is an unprecedented opportunity to see masterpieces by Rubens side by side with the work of his artistic heirs.

Online booking for this exhibition has now closed, however there will be tickets available at the ticket desk for the final evening on 10 April.

24 January — 10 April 2015

Sunday – Thursday 10am – 6pm
Friday 10am – 10pm
Saturday 10am – 8pm

£16.50 (without donation £15). Concessions available. Friends of the RA and under 16s go free.

Main Galleries, Burlington House

- La Peregrina
  
  Contemporary works join 'Rubens and His Legacy'
  
  As part of this landmark exhibition, celebrated artist and Royal Academician Jenny Saville has curated La Peregrina, a personal and contemporary response to Rubens and His Legacy.
  
  For La Peregrina, Saville has chosen a selection of works by major 20th and 21st century artists. As well as paintings by Willem de Kooning, Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon, Sarah Lucas, Lucian Freud and others, you can see extraordinary new work created by Saville especially for this occasion.
  
  Jenny Saville is best known for her large-scale oil paintings of female figures. With her deep fascination in the palpability of flesh, extremities of anatomy and the grotesque, Saville’s artwork invokes the influence of Rubens. The range of works she has brought together reflect both her personal response and deep understanding of one of the great masters of art history.
  
  “Whether you think you like Rubens or not, his influence runs through the pathways of painting. Like Warhol, he changed the game of art.” - Jenny Saville RA
  
  Jenny Saville with 'Voice of the Shuttle (Philomela)'
  
  Jenny Saville RA with 'Voice of the Shuttle (Philomela)', 2014 - 2015 Pastel and charcoal on canvas, 280 x 360 cm Private collection. © Jenny Saville. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2015 Photo: Chris Jackson © Getty

Audio guide extract

Jenny Saville discusses the legacy of Peter Paul Rubens

As part of the exhibition Rubens and His Legacy, British painter Jenny Saville has curated a contemporary response to the ‘prince of painters’. Here, she talks to Tim Marlow, Artistic Director, about how Rubens has influenced artists from De Kooning to Sarah Lucas.

Video

Visitors share their thoughts about 'Rubens and His Legacy'

We asked some visitors to the Royal Academy to share their thoughts about our exhibition ‘Rubens and His Legacy: Van Dyck to Cézanne’. Here’s what they had to say.
Video

An introduction to the exhibition

Exhibition co-curator Nico Van Hout introduces ‘Rubens and His Legacy’.
Video

Tim Marlow introduces 'La Peregrina'

The RA’s Director of Artistic Programmes introduces ‘La Peregrina’, a contemporary response to the exhibition curated by Jenny Saville RA.

So total was his artistic vision, his legacy can be felt, one way or another, in the majority of painters who followed him…It’s fair to say that art was one thing before Rubens and quite another after him

Alastair Smart, The Daily Telegraph

Gallery

Peter Paul Rubens, Tiger, Lion and Leopard Hunt, c.1616.

Oil on canvas. 256 x 324.5 cm. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, inv. 1811.1.10. Photo © MBA, Rennes, Dist.RMN-Grand Palais / Adélaïde Beaudoin. Exhibition organised by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Royal Academy of Arts, London, and BOZAR (Centre for Fine Arts), Brussels.

Eugène Delacroix, Lion Hunt, 1858.

Oil on canvas. 92 x 117.5 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, inv. 95.179. S. A. Denio Collection - Sylvanus Adams Denio Fund and General Income. Photograph © 2014 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Exhibition organised by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Royal Academy of Arts, London, and BOZAR (Centre for Fine Arts), Brussels.

Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder, Pan and Syrinx, c.1617.

Oil on panel. 40 x 61 cm. Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, inv. GK 1229. Photo: Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister/Ute Brunzel. Exhibition organised by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Royal Academy of Arts, London, and BOZAR (Centre for Fine Arts), Brussels.

François Boucher, Pan and Syrinx, 1759.

Oil on canvas. 32.4 x 41.9 cm. The National Gallery, London. Presented by Mrs Robert Hollond, 1880. Photo © Copyright The National Gallery, London 2014. Exhibition organised by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Royal Academy of Arts, London, and BOZAR (Centre for Fine Arts), Brussels.

Francis Bacon, Sleeping Figure, 1959.

Oil on canvas. 119.5 x 152.5 cm. Private collection. © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved. DACS 2015. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.

Peter Paul Rubens, The Triumph of Henri IV, 1630.

Oil on panel. 49.5 x 83.5 cm. Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1942 (42.187). Photo © 2013. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Art Resource / Scala, Florence. Exhibition organised by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Royal Academy of Arts, London, and BOZAR (Centre for Fine Arts), Brussels.

Peter Paul Rubens, Evening Landscape with Timber Wagon, 1630-40.

Oil on panel. 49.5 x 54.7 cm. Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, inv. 2514. Photo: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam/Photographer: Studio Tromp, Rotterdam. Exhibition organised by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Royal Academy of Arts, London, and BOZAR (Centre for Fine Arts), Brussels.

Eugène Delacroix, The Triumph of Apollo (Apollo Vanquishing the Serpent Python), c. 1853.

Oil on canvas. 110 x 99.5 cm. Fondation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich. Photo: Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection (J.-P. Kuhn, SIAR). Exhibition organised by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Royal Academy of Arts, London, and BOZAR (Centre for Fine Arts), Brussels.

- Talks and tours
  
  Get more out of the exhibition
  
  Exhibition tours
  45 minutes
  Free with an exhibition ticket, no booking required.
  Wednesday 2.30pm
  Friday 7pm
  (28 January to 3 April)
  
  Exhibition spotlight talks
  10 minute talks on individual works from current exhibitions, free with exhibition entry.
  Thursday 3pm
  
  See all events

This is a fascinating exhibition that demonstrates Rubens’s protean reach into just about every area of art over the past four centuries

Mark Hudson, The Telegraph

Resources
- Peter Paul Rubens, Tiger, Lion and Leopard Hunt, c.1616.
  
  Oil on canvas. 256 x 324.5 cm. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, inv. 1811.1.10. Photo © MBA, Rennes, Dist.RMN-Grand Palais / Adélaïde Beaudoin. Exhibition organised by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Royal Academy of Arts, London, and BOZAR (Centre for Fine Arts), Brussels.
  
  Exhibition in focus guide
  
  Read up on Rubens with our guide to the exhibition, a beautifully illustrated introduction which presents the central themes of the exhibition and key artworks within Rubens’s wider art historical and cultural context. Written especially for secondary students and teachers, the guide is nevertheless suitable for all.
  
  Download the ‘Rubens and His Legacy’ Exhibition in focus guide
- Large print labels
  
  Although large print labels will be available in every room of the exhibition, you can download them before arriving at the RA.
  
  Download large print labels for 'Rubens and His Legacy'
- Learning and schools
  
  Find out more about our learning programme around Rubens and His Legacy and download the Rubens Art Detective, an engaging exhibition trail for young visitors.
  
  Download Art Detective
  
  Find out about family workshops and events
  
  Find out about events for teachers and students

Shop
- Exhibition catalogue
  
  This stunning book explores Rubens’s legacy thematically, through a series of sections devoted to Violence, Power, Lust, Compassion, Elegance and Poetry – illustrating some of the master’s most famous paintings alongside great works that bear his influence.
  
  Shop now
- Mademoiselle Lundens Tray
  
  George Maile painted Mademoiselle Susanna Lundens in 1808. She was a proposed wife to Peter Paul Rubens, but it was in fact her younger sister Hélène who in 1630 became the painter’s second wife. Exclusively produced for the RA, this tray captures her expression.
  
  Shop now
- Print on demand
  
  Bring the baroque into your own home with this beautiful framed print of ‘The Garden of Love’ by Peter Paul Rubens. It is in this painting that Rubens was celebrating his second marriage to Hélène Fourment, who was deemed “the most beautiful woman in Antwerp.”
  
  Choose from a selection of outstanding reproduction prints from Rubens and His Legacy and the rest of the RA Collection. Prints can be delivered direct to your door.
  
  Shop now

- Special Rubens package for two people
  
  Enjoy a special Rubens package for two people, including two tickets to the exhibition, Rubens and His Legacy, with two audioguides followed by two cocktails in the bar of the Keeper’s House restaurant, all for £50.
  
  Book the special Rubens package here

List of objects proposed for protection under Part 6 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (protection of cultural objects on loan)

The RA is closed due to coronavirus restrictions, and will reopen when government guidance allows. For ticket enquiries, please contact us at 020 7300 8090 or tickets@royalacademy.org.uk.

Rubens and His Legacy

Van Dyck to Cézanne

24 January — 10 April 2015

This exhibition is now closed

★★★★