I said Rubens, not Robins

You need to pay attention if you are to learn anything from my writings. This is about Rubens, and not Robins as my gardener friend thought, when he read it and was disappointed it did not mention birds.

Peter Paul Rubens lived between 1577 and 1640 and was a very famous Flemish painter of the period.

He was a prolific artist and his works were mostly religious subjects, as well as a lot of mythological subjects, and hunt scenes. He also painted portraits of friends, as well as several landscapes.

Basically, you name it, and he painted it. Except of course the garden gate and fence which remained unpainted despite being told and nagged many times by his wife. Believe me, I know the feeling; I have still to paint the garage door although in my opinion it looks fine. You know how some women are? Always going on and on about the same thing. I mean, I painted the wretched garage door three years ago. Why does it need re-painting? The other day we were lying in bed, (X rated content). I leant upon her for an amourous hug. She looked up at me and said, "the ceiling needs painting again!" 

Anyway, back to Rubens. He painted on canvas, slate as well as wood it seems. In fact he painted on anything except of course the wooden gate and fence which I've already mentioned. (I can hear voices in my head saying, "Paint the garage door ... and the ceiling." - how can you switch your conscience off?)

Now one thing you'll notice about most of Rubens' paintings, (except landscapes), is that he had a special penchant, (fondness), for painting fully-rounded and plump women; hence the term "Rubensian" or "Rubenesque" to describe women of a certain size. His penchant was mainly due to the fact that he had one leg shorter than the other. Either that or he had lost one shoe.

Anyway, as I was saying until you focussed on his penchant ... none of these skinny models you see in modern magazines, for Rubens. They had to be fairly big and rotund to feature in his paintings. This is because he had a lot of flesh coloured paint to get rid off, and since no one paints gates and fences this colour he painted nudes instead.

In 1630, four years after the death of his first wife, at the age of 53, Rubens married his 16 years old niece, Hélène Fourment.

You can see her in the painting above, known as "Hélène Fourment in a Fur Wrap", getting out of the bath. Most people would use a towel I suppose, but there were none available that day - so a fur wrap it was. As you can see, she is no skinny lady is she?

I will refrain from mentioning her two good points; but you'll have to admit she did have dainty feet.

Can you imagine, at 16 being married to her uncle aged 53? What did she call him? Darling? Husband? Uncle? Or lunatic?

The young niece and wife inspired the voluptuous figures in Rubens paintings from 1630 onwards. The most famous of which is "The Three Graces",

I'm not sure which one is Ruben's niece, but judging from the colour of her hair I'd guess it's the woman on the left.

I can't help marvelling at how that piece of delicate cloth is wrapped round the two women and held in place by their voluptuousness.

Now I can understand a painter wishing to paint nudes, nothing wrong with that I suppose, especially if you have bought a lot of paint which you want to use up before its "sell-by" date. So, asking a few people to model for you is in this case acceptable, I guess. But to actually paint your own wife naked, and then display the painting for all to see ... Well, that's another matter.

Can you imagine him saying, as she steps out of the bath, "Hold it there, darling! Just wrap this piece of fur delicately around you, showing off your interesting bits ... Don't worry about the fur moulting. It was a mangy old dog anyway; and you can have another bath later to get rid of any fur still stuck on you. Now let me get my paint brush!"

And then displaying the finished painting is like a modern day man taking a photo of his wife naked and posting it on social media for all to see. How would you react to that if it happened to you, I wonder?

Can you imagine the conversation in the supermarket when Rubens' young wife met her friends?

"Oh ... you have put on some weight dear, judging from the painting I saw? Especially on the derrière!"

Or ...

"I liked the painting with your two good friends. At first I thought it was called "The Three Greases". It's a good painting really. You should be proud of your healthy features. Do you think your husband would paint me naked too? I have a lovely tattoo on my bottom that needs airing!"

You can add your own imagined discussions below.