Longfellow: from the German.
The picture is a portrait of Susanne Fourment, an elder sister of Rubens's second wife, Helène Fourment. Susanne often sat to Rubens; other paintings and drawings of her by his hand exist. She afterwards married Arnold Lunden. The picture remained in the possession of the painter until his death, when it passed into that of Nicholas Lunden, who had married Isabella, a daughter of Rubens by his second wife, Helène Fourment. The picture remained in the Lunden family until 1822, when it was sold by auction for 36,000 florins and brought to England. After being offered in vain to George IV., it was bought by Sir Robert Peel for 3500 guineas. Why and when this picture of a lady in a beaver hat acquired the inappropriate title of "Chapeau de Paille" ("The Straw Hat"), by which it has hitherto been called, is unknown. Perhaps the title is a corruption of "Chapeau d'Espagne." An entirely different story about the picture was current in the Lunden family. According to this not very probable tradition, Miss Susanne had refused to sit to Rubens, so he painted her unawares whilst she was in her garden, wearing a large straw hat. When the picture was done, she pardoned the flattering indiscretion and accepted it as a gift. Rubens afterwards begged leave to take back the portrait, promising in return a work in which he would put all his talent. This was a replica of the same portrait, but instead of a straw hat (chapeau de paille) he introduced in the second version the beaver hat (chapeau de poil) that we see. The Lunden family had christened the original "Chapeau de Paille," and the present picture has ever since retained the same title. (See letter in the Times, August 6, 1886, from M. Jules Nollée de Noduwez, himself a connection of the Lunden family).
853. THE TRIUMPH OF SILENUS.
Rubens (Flemish: 1577-1640). See 38.
For the subject see under 93. "Rubens painted these subjects with a gusto in which there is something fearful, so wonderful is the skill, the felicity of execution, the life, the energy, the fancy displayed—so gross and so repulsive the sentiment. In Niccolo Poussin's Bacchanalian scenes we have the licence and the revels of gods and nymphs, and of the golden age. Rubens gives us, with perhaps a truer moral feeling but more depraved taste, mere animal sensuality, with all its most brutal attributes" (Mrs. Jameson's Handbook to the Private Galleries of London, p. 362). This picture was in the artist's possession at the time of his death, and was then bought for Cardinal Richelieu. It was afterwards in the collection of Sir Robert Peel, who gave £1100 for it.
853. a-p.
These sixteen drawings by Rubens formed part of the rich collection of Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A., after whose death they were acquired for Sir Robert Peel. They were purchased for the nation in 1871 with the Peel Collection of pictures. The subjects are as follows:—
853 a, b, c, and d. Four studies for the famous picture at Munich, representing the "Fall of the Damned." In black chalk, tinted slightly. "Inconceivably fine," says Mrs. Jameson.
853 e. THE MARTYRDOM OF A SAINT.—He kneels, and a woman is about to bind his eyes. Fifteen figures with angels.
853 f. THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST.—Study for the picture at Munich.
853 g. THE CRUCIFIXION.—Drawing from the great picture at Antwerp, done for the engraver to work from.
853 h. PORTRAIT OF A GIRL; with a cap and feather. Study from one of his own children.
853 i. PORTRAIT OF A LADY, with flowers in her hair. Probably a study from his first wife. "Extremely fine," says Mrs. Jameson, "and full of life."
853 j. HEAD OF A LADY, in chalk and sepia, wonderfully spirited.
853 k. SKETCH FOR MONUMENTAL SCULPTURE, or design for a frontispiece—with a figure of "Fame."
853 l. THE SAME, with figures of Moses and Aaron.
853 m. THE SAME, with satyrs.
853 n. THE SAME, representing the siege of Breda: Minerva and Hercules, prisoners, implements of war, etc.
853 o. STUDY OF A LIONESS, introduced into his picture of "Daniel in the Lion's Den."
853 p. SKETCH OF A LION HUNT.—Study for the great picture at Dresden.