Rubens & Women

Exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 27 September 2023 - 28 January 2024

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) clearly loved to paint the female figure, particularly in its sensual, undressed form. But his women are never simply bodies trapped by the male gaze; on the contrary, they are proud and complex heroines, full of character and gravity. No other male artist has created such powerful images of the power, assurance, determination, commitment and beauty of women.

This catalogue of the first exhibition devoted to Rubens' depictions of women challenges the popular assumption that Rubens painted only one type of woman. It presents a more nuanced view of the varied and essential role that women played in the artist's life and work, bringing together and contributing to recent scholarly developments on topics such as the identity of Rubens's models, seventeenth-century artistic theory and practice, and Rubens's treatment of the human body.