Helena Fourment in a Fur Robe

Helena Fourment in a Fur Robe (Het Pelsken, c. 1636-38) at the Kunsthistorisches Museum is among the most personal and celebrated of Rubens's late paintings — an intimate image of his young wife wrapped in only a fur coat, clearly conceived as a private rather than public work. The painting was found in Rubens's studio at his death and kept by Hélène, who eventually sold it but attempted through her will to prevent it from being displayed publicly, requesting that it be painted over — a wish that was fortunately ignored. The precedent for a beautiful woman in a fur coat was established by Titian's La Bella (now in the Pitti Palace), which Rubens had seen and which gave this intimate nude subject a distinguished artistic genealogy. The painting's extraordinary quality — the fur's textures rendered with the same loving attention as the flesh it barely covers — demonstrates Rubens's late mastery at its most personal and concentrated. The Kunsthistorisches Museum's possession of this work alongside the late self-portrait allows the two defining private images of Rubens's final years to be seen together.

The painting showcases Rubens' supreme mastery of flesh painting, with the warm luminosity of Helena's body contrasting with the rich dark fur. The broad, confident brushwork of his late style creates extraordinary effects of light on skin.

Known as "Het Pelsken" (The Little Fur), this painting in the Kunsthistorisches Museum is one of Rubens's most celebrated works. Rubens specified in his will that it should go to Helena herself. The painting has been carefully conserved, with the delicate flesh tones and fur textures well-preserved.