Rubens and Brueghel: A Working Friendship

Assembled here are some of the most important works of Brueghel and Rubens’s partnership—from the early war themes, to mythological landscapes and allegories, to iconic paintings of the Madonna and Child surrounded by garlands of fruit and flowers—as well as a select group of works executed with other collaborators, including Hans Rottenhammer, Hendrick de Clerck, Hendrick van Balen, and Frans Snyders. Together, these paintings reveal the nature of collaboration as practiced in the Netherlands in this period. What also emerges is the unique character of Brueghel and Rubens’s conceptual alliance—a rare partnership of equals, a complex and reciprocal relationship that gave rise to works of unparalleled delight.