On 3 October 1609, Rubens married Isabella Brant, the daughter of a leading Antwerp citizen and humanist, Jan Brant. The following year they moved into a new house and studio that the artist designed himself. Now the Rubenshuis Museum, the Italian-influenced villa in the centre of Antwerp accommodated Rubens’ rapidly expanding workshop, where he employed a large number of assistants and apprentices, and also where he stored his personal art collection and library, among the most extensive examples to be found in Antwerp. During this time, he painted the following double portrait of himself and his wife, which is now held in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
The striking couple are symbolically seated before a honeysuckle bower, serving as an emblem of romantic love, while their joined right hands provide a further symbolic image of their marital harmony. Without any sign of his profession, Rubens is presented as a wealthy and prosperous Antwerp gentleman, with his left hand resting on a richly jewelled sword. His wife’s gold-trimmed silks and satins blend with the golden tones of the honeysuckle and the evening sun, producing an ethereal charm to the composition.