Evening star., 1941-08-10

produced a prodigious number of
works of art of very fine quality.
All this has bearing upon two of
the paintings in the collection given
to the Nation by the late Andrew
w. Mellon-the portrait of Rubens'
first wife, Isabella Brant, and that
of Susanna Fourment and her little
daughter, Susanna, being the sister
of his second wife, Helena Four
ment, whom he married in 1880.
Both of these canvaseS were form
erly in the Hermitage Gallery, Lenin-
grad, and listed as by Rubens. This
attribution had, however, been ques-
toned some years earlier by certain
distinguished critics who gave them
both 10 Van Dyck, and the latter is
now so listed in the National Gal
lery catalogue Also. most recently.
Charles de Tolnay of Hungary and
Vienna, in an article in the April
number of the Magazine of Art,
declared the former also the work of
Van Dyck rather than Rubens.
Van Dyck entered Rupens' Acad-
emy in 1915 and worked under him
until 1920, when he visited England
for short time. On the advice of
Rubens, he went. in 1921, to Italy,
where he remained for about five
years, the most of which time he
spent in Genoa, where some of the
finest of his paintings were pro-
duced, among them the handsome
portrait of the Marchesa Balbi,
given by Mr. Mellon to the National
Gallery, and the six superb portraits
in the Widener collection, which will
eventually come here.
Worked Independently.
From 1926 to 1880, Van Dyck
spent most of his time in Antwerp
working independently, but from
then on, with the exception of a short
sojourn in The Hague and occa-
sional visits home, he lived and
worked almost continuously, until
his death in 1841, in London, where
he was principal painter in ordi-
nary to their majesties at st.
James and maintained lavish
establishment at Blackfriars. If,
therefore, the portraits of Isabella
Brant and Susanna Fourment were
done by Van Dyck, rather than
Rubens, they must date before 1921
or between 1926 and 1880. But 1t
should be remembered that Isabella
died in 1926 and that, by that time,
Van Dyck had developed in Italy a
style quite individualistically his
own. Furthermore, in 1880, the
year of her marriage, Helena Four
ment was only 16 years old. there
fore, Susanna, her sister, unless the
eldest of a large family, could
scarcely have been the mother of
two daughters of whom the young
est is supposed to be pictured with
her. In fact, there IS very grave
doubt as to whether this is Susanna
Fourment or some other person.
That she wears, apparently, the
same costume as Isabella Brant,
and also the same chain, is no
proof, for both may have been studio
properties.
Comparing these portraits with
others by Rubens and Van Dyck
there can be no doubt of the iden-
tity of Isabella Brant, as the face
is unquestionably the same as that
of the wife in the double portrait
of Rubens and Isabella now in the
Pinakothek, Munich, the work of
Rubens. The resemblance is less
close, however, between Rubens'
portrait of Susanna Fourment in
the National Gallery, London, and
the portrait in our National Gal
lery, and, furthermore. there is a
portrait of the same mother and
child by Van Dyck, but unidenti-
fled, in the great national COL
lection of Great Britain. Addi-
tional proof Of the portrait Of Isa-
bella being actually Of Rubens' frst