Name Helena Fourment | ||
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Spouse Peter Paul Rubens (m. 1630–1640) Children Hyacinthe-Marie de Brouchoven, Jan van Brouchoven People also search for Peter Paul Rubens, Isabella Brant, Jan Rubens, Maria Pypelincks | ||
La gloria de la carne · PETER PAUL RUBENS
Helena Fourment or Hélène Fourment (11 April 1614 – 15 July 1673) was the second wife of Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens. She was the subject of a few portraits by Rubens, and also modeled for other religious and mythological paintings.
Contents
- La gloria de la carne PETER PAUL RUBENS
- Rubens portrait of Helena Fourment
- Family
- First marriage
- Second marriage
- Presence
- Portraits
- Model
- References
Rubens portrait of Helena Fourment
Family
Helena Fourment was the youngest child of Daniël I Fourment, an weathy Antwerp silk and carpet merchant, and Clara Stappaerts. After his death, Daniel left to his son (Daniel II) an important collection of Carpets of Oudenaarde, Brussels and Antwerp and 35 paintings of his son in law, a large painting of Jordaens and several works of Italian masters. They had four sons and seven daughters. Helena Fourment was buried together with her first husband, children and parents in the Saint James' church, Antwerp. Most of her sisters married into important families.
First marriage
Helena Fourment married Rubens on 6 December 1630 in Saint James, when she was 16 years old and he was aged 53. His first wife, Isabella Brant, had died in 1626. Helena's brother Daniël Fourment the younger was married to Clara Brant, the sister of Isabella. Daniël Fourment the elder was an art lover and possessed works by Rubens and Jacob Jordaens, and works by Italian masters; he also commissioned from Rubens a series of tapestries depicting the life of Achilles.
Second marriage
After the death of Rubens, Helena started a relationship with Jean-Baptist de Brouchoven assessor and alderman of Antwerp, who later became 1st Count of Bergeyk. On 9 October 1644 their first son Jean de Brouchoven, 2nd Count of Bergeyck, was born, and Helena and Jean-Baptist married in 1645. Her second husband, who was a military knight of St-Jacques, died during a diplomatic mission in Toulouse in 1681.
Helena died in Brussels in 1673. Amongst the many descendants of her grandson the 3rd Count of Bergeyck we find Louis de Brouchoven de Bergeyck and his great-grand daughter Stéphanie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.
Presence
Helena Fourment was said to be very beautiful, amongst others by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria, then Governor of the Netherlands, stating that she was "undoubtedly the most beautiful one may see here", and by the poet Gaspar Gevartius, a friend of Rubens, who praised "Helen of Antwerp, who far surpasses Helen of Troy".