Artist of the month of May (O.M.O project)

Artist featured this month:
Peter Paul Rubens


(June 28, 1577 - May 30, 1640)


A diplomat best remembered as the most popular and prolific Flemish and European painter of the 17th Century. He was the proponent of an exuberant Baroque style which emphasized movement, color, and sensuality.

As many of his paintings feature full-figured, voluptuous women, the word "Rubenesque" (meaning plump or fleshy, yet not "fat," and used exclusively to describe women) is derived from his last name.

Still, his art was much more diverse than this. He painted numerous portraits and self-portraits, religious paintings, as well as landscapes and historical pieces. He designed tapestries and houses.

("Rubens and Isabella Brant in the Honeysuckle Bower", 1609-10. Alte Pinakothek, Munich.)

(Rubens, his wife Helena Fourment, and their son Peter Paul
c. 1639)

(Peter Paul Rubens,
St. Catherine, ca. 1620–21 etching)



("Two Satyrs"
1618-19)