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Portrait of Isabella Brant, c. 1620-25, Cleveland Museum of Art

NARRATOR: This is Rubens’ first wife, Isabella Brant. The daughter of an Antwerp city official, she married the artist soon after he arrived back from Italy. Together, they had a daughter and two sons.

KIRK NICKEL: And this portrait is a very loving representation of her not as his new bride, but as his beloved wife and mother of his children.

What I love about this portrait is the way Rubens captures this finely regulated emotion that's expressed on her face. She has a real glint in her eye and seems entirely amused by this act of her husband painting her, but a real joy at the same time.

NARRATOR: It’s a quickly-painted, intimate portrayal of the person closest to Rubens, Isabella’s expression conveying a vivid sense of her character and the connection between them. But the year after he made this painting, Isabella died at age thirty-five.

By now, the family lived in the splendid mansion you’ll see in the engraving nearby. There, Rubens worked on commissions for aristocratic and royal patrons, and kept his library and extensive collections of antiquities. In short, he lived like a nobleman – which was extremely rare among artists at this time.