Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of Helena Fourment

by Atelier Liesjes

Hélène Fourment (Antwerp, baptised 1 April 1614 - Brussels, 15 July 1673) was the wife of painter Peter Paul Rubens and statesman Jan-Baptist van Brouchoven.

Hélène Fourment married Rubens on 6 December 1630, when she was 16 and he 53. Hélène and Rubens had five children together, the youngest of whom was born when Rubens had already died.

Hélène Fourment was considered a beautiful woman; her beauty was praised by, among others, the governor of the Southern Netherlands Ferdinand of Austria, who said she was "without doubt the most beautiful one can see here" and by the poet Jan Caspar Gevaerts, a friend of Rubens, who wrote that "Helen of Antwerp far surpasses Helen of Troy". Hélène and Rubens had a happy marriage which can be seen, among other things, in the many portraits he made of Hélène.

Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 28 June 1577 - Antwerp, Brabant, Spanish Netherlands, 30 May 1640) was a southern Dutch painter of Flemish Baroque. He was also called Pieter Paul, Pieter Pauwel or Petrus Paulus.