A 400-year-old Rubens‘ masterpiece is going on display following conservation work by the National Gallery. The National Gallery newly restored masterpiece by Peter Paul Rubens, ‘An Autumn Landscape with a View of Het Steen in the Early Morning’, probably 1636 will go on display.
‘Het Steen’ will be unveiled this spring at the Wallace Collection’s exhibition (21 April 2021 – 15 August 2021) where it will be reunited with its pendant, ‘The Rainbow Landscape’, probably 1636 (The Wallace Collection) after being apart for over two centuries.
The magnificent landscape paintings depict Rubens’s beloved manor home and estate, Het Steen, in Antwerp. Although the painting were made as pair, the two separated after reaching London in 1803. The one entered The National Museum while the other went to Wallace Collection.
A very extensive treatment was performed on the painting by the conservatory team of the gallery. Various layers of aged and discolored varnish has been removed to reveal the depth and vibrancy of Rubens’s original colours. A comprehensive structural repair has been made to the highly fragile network of panels. This process is currently being documented in a series of new ‘behind the scenes’ films, sponsored by Nikon.
The conservation work showed how Rubens developed these two landscape paintings together, to be viewed alongside one another. It is thought that the paintings once hung on opposite walls of the same room. The wall in between had a window, and the paintings were probably positioned so that the sunlight pouring into the room matched that depicted in each work. In these paintings, Rubens celebrates what he treasured most: his own success, perhaps, but also the prosperity and peace of Flanders, his native land.
Both the painting were in Ruben’s Possession when he died in 1640. Clearly these were deeply personal pictures, pictures which Rubens chose to live alongside, to display in his own home. It seems only fitting that they are to be reunited after over two centuries apart, as the artist intended.