The library of the Rubenshuis already held 2,000 running metres of books, art files and records. With the archive of drawings specialist Anne-Marie Logan, the legacy of Rubens expert Arnout Balis, Rubens’s illustrated library, and the archive of Rubens’s country house Het Steen, four more collections have now been added to the library’s holdings. They constitute a valuable link in the further reconstruction of the life and work of Peter Paul Rubens.
With the donation of Rubens expert Ludwig Burchard in 1960, the Rubenianum cemented its position as a specialised library and research centre for 16th- and 17th-century Flemish art. Even after the merger with the Rubenshuis and the move to Hopland, the Burchard collection continues to form the library’s backbone. Over the years, many researchers and enthusiasts followed Burchard’s example. Recently, the Rubenshuis received two extremely valuable donations and a loan. In addition, the Rubenshuis also acquired Rubens’s illustrated library. The collection has now been significantly expanded again just before the new library opens.
The world-renowned art historian spent 55 years of her life building a prestigious archive of reference works and documentation on Rubens’s drawings. She donated this to the Rubenshuis in 2024. This archive formed the basis for her numerous publications on the artist and the high-profile Rubens exhibition with which she amazed visitors to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the rest of the world in 2005. The Swiss art historian organised her impressive archive based on the locations of the drawings she studied. This clear structure enables future researchers to delve deeper into Logan’s findings, methods, and experiences from the 1960s to the present day in a very focused way.
The 110 boxes containing 2,770 kilograms of archival material and books of the now 88-year-old specialist in Rubens’s drawn oeuvre arrived in Antwerp recently. The material will be meticulously catalogued and made accessible to both researchers and the general public in the coming years.
In 2021, our dear colleague and Rubens expert Arnout Balis passed away. With the donation of his books and notes, Professor Arnout Balis lives on forever in the Rubenshuis. The charismatic expert from Brussels was always closely involved with the Rubenshuis. As president of the Centrum Rubenianum and the driving force behind the Corpus Rubenianum, he played an instrumental part in how the world still looks at Rubens with admiration today. Balis’s house was overflowing with books on a wide range of topics. He also kept a wealth of precious information in his office in the Rubenianum. Following this donation, the library added 880 titles to its holdings that are complementary to the existing collection.
The 25 metres of books were carefully stored in durable archive boxes with the help of students in archival science and art history. Nice to know: the many sheets with notes on artworks, books and conversations have also been preserved, adding another layer of knowledge and experience to Balis’s passion and admiration for his favourite artist.
Many people have no idea that Rubens also designed title pages and illustrations for over 75 books. The acquisition of a private collection of Rubens’s illustrated library was an exceptional opportunity. In addition to the books with covers and drawings by the artist, this acquisition also includes books from the 16th and 17th centuries that inspired Rubens, of which he may have had a copy in his bookcase. Many of these books are solely and exceptionally available through auction houses and highly specialised dealers.
In absolute numbers: 9 running metres or a total of 140 publications in 150 original leather and parchment bindings. Each is extremely valuable in its own right, but taken together, they are priceless. In his book illustrations, the versatile artist once again found a way to stand out and be innovative. Many of them are teeming with symbolism, from references to Greek and Roman mythology to his renderings of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Even more than his paintings, these drawings show how books defined Rubens’s thinking and views on life. So it makes sense that they have now been given a place in the new library, in the place where Rubens kept his own books four hundred years ago.
When the last private owner of Het Steen sold his manor house and estate near Elewijt to Visit Flanders in 2019, he also donated all archival documents from the castle to the buyer. The Government of Flanders has now given this historical archive on the former country home of Rubens and his wife Helena Fourment on permanent loan to the Rubenshuis. The extraordinary collection tells the story of Het Steen under the stewardship of its many owners, from Maria Christina of Egmont to Laurent-Benoît Dewez. We, of course, are mainly interested in the period that Rubens lived there and the 38 years when Helena and her new husband – Jan Baptist van Brouchoven – used the manor house. Documents from this period give us an insight into the renovation of the manor house, show how Peter Paul and Helena continued to expand the estate and mention Helena’s active involvement in the management of the surrounding landscape.
The archive includes 155 paper and parchment documents, along with three more recent iconographic documents. First, the centuries-old documents were expertly cleaned and then safely stored in boxes. The next step is the (digital) unlocking of the entire Steen archive, ensuring the memory of the wonderful times Rubens had during his last years of life in Elewijt will never be forgotten.
