Hélène Fourment  

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Hèlène Fourment (* Antwerp ? 1614- † Brussels ? 1673) was the second wife of Rubens. They married in 1630, she was sixteen, he fifty-three.

In 1630, four years after the death of his first wife, the 53-year-old painter married 16-year-old Hélène Fourment. Hélène inspired the voluptuous figures in many of his paintings from the 1630s, including The Feast of Venus (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), The Three Graces (Prado, Madrid) and The Judgment of Paris (Prado, Madrid). In the latter painting, which was made for the Spanish court, the artist's young wife was recognized by viewers in the figure of Venus. In an intimate portrait of her, Hélène Fourment in a Fur Wrap, also known as Het Pelsken, Rubens's wife is even partially modeled after classical sculptures of the Venus Pudica, such as the Medici Venus.

Hèlène Fourment (* Anvers ? 1614- † Bruxelles ? 1673) était la fille cadette d'un négociant en tapisseries, Daniel Fourment, et la deuxième épouse de Pierre Paul Rubens. Ils se marièrent en 1630, elle avait seize ans, lui cinquante-trois.

L'artiste auparavant l'avait prise pour modèle de L'éducation de la Vierge (Musée d'Anvers). Il ne se lassera pas de glorifier sa jeune beauté blonde ; parmi les chefs d'œuvre qu'elle lui a inspiré, citons Hèlène Fourment en robes de noce (Pinacothèque de Munich), La petite Pelisse (musée de Vienne) Hèlène Fourment et ses enfants. Hèlène Fourment au carrosse (Louvre).