The imposing portico and garden pavilion at the Rubens House can now be viewed again by the public. After a year and a half, their restoration is complete. Rubens designed both features himself, making them rare evidence of Rubens as an architect.
Rubens’s restored Self-Portrait is back in the Rubens House in Antwerp after an absence of more than a year. Rubens returns our gaze, with a blush on his cheeks and sensuous red lips.
Rubens had the habit of reworking paintings which his assistants painted after his own specifications. A lesser-known fact is that he also took great pleasure in retouching the paintings and drawings of other, usually older masters.