Rubens with his Wife and Child
Medium
Mezzotint; first state of two; proof before letters
Dimensions
Sheet (Trimmed): 20 1/16 × 14 3/16 in. (51 × 36 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951
Accession Number
51.501.7538
Art Historical Context
This mezzotint by Irish engraver James McArdell captures Peter Paul Rubens alongside his second wife, Helena Fourment, and their young son Frans. Created between 1740 and 1765, the print reproduces a celebrated Baroque family portrait by Rubens himself, one of the most influential artists of the seventeenth century. McArdell, renowned for his reproductive prints after Old Master paintings, brought this intimate domestic scene to new audiences in the eighteenth century through the tonal richness of mezzotint. The medium, described here as a first state of two and a proof before letters, highli...