In 1630, 4 years after his first wife passed, Pieter Paul Rubens at 53 married Helene Fourment, a 16 year old girl from a rich family. Rubens, lonely after the loss of his wife, wanted to marry a woman who wouldn’t mind being a model for his paintings, he didn’t think a prideful noble woman would be the right choice. Helene eventually became the model of several paintings the most famous being “Het Pelsken” where’s she’s naked coming out of a bath wrapped up only in a fur coat. In 1639 Cardinal-infante Ferdinand wrote she was the most beautiful woman in Antwerp after he had seen her at his brother’s Filips IV of Spain. #art #history #oldmasters #female #artisticnudity