Arnold Francis Rubens (antwerp, 1687-1719), Battle With Knights In A River Landscape

Arnold Francis Rubens (Antwerp, 1687-1719)

Battle with knights in a river landscape

(2) Oil on canvas, cm 30 x 39

With frame, cm 51 x 58

Signed in the lower left "Rubens"

Arnold Francis Rubens (1687-1719) was a Flemish Baroque painter specializing in cabinet paintings of landscapes and battle scenes. Rubens was born in Antwerp, the son of art dealer Arnold Rubens and Catharina Pannens. Little is known about his life and education: according to contemporary sources, he may have been self-taught, copying paintings and prints available in his father’s shop. Of course he became a teacher in the Guild of Saint Luke of Antwerp in 1715. His work consists mainly of cabinet paintings depicting landscapes - many of his landscapes are fluvial or marine - and battle scenes. He also copied paintings of his famous namesake Peter Paul Rubens, to whom it is not believed that he was directly related. In his biographies of Dutch painters published between 1729 and 1769, the scholar Jacob Campo Weyerman showed appreciation for the depiction of soldiers' faces and Rubens’s palette. In addition, Jacob Campo Weyerman shows that he also appreciates the painter’s particularly affable personality, which is described as follows: «Moreover, that little artist is very courteous and friendly for a man born in Antwerp, whose citizens are usually as proud and hostile to foreigners as so many inflated Luciferae, and clearly show to be descended from the Spanish officers and soldiers of the Duke d'Alba».

The two canvases depict a group of knights involved in an animated battle. The figures are small but detailed, with bright colors that stand out against a more subdued background. We can identify horses and knights engaged in combat, some with spears or swords, others on horseback.