In 2021, the Rubens House (Rubenshuis) celebrated its 75th anniversary as a museum. The site used to be his actual home and workshop. 

The mansion at the Wapper was Peter Paul Rubens‘ actual home and studio. Inspired by his voyages in Italy, Rubens redesigned and redecorated his home as a palazzo, with a workshop, a garden and sculpture garden. 

Rubens’s children sold the place and from the 18th century onward, many transformations where made. Only parts of the attic and the garden wall are original. The Hercules sculpture is authentic as well. 

Rubens was also an art collector, with works by Titian, Tintoretto and Anthony Van Dyck. But most of it was sold by his heirs. 

The visit

The visit starts with a tour of the home, introducing you to his living quarters and his way of life. At the end, you see the workshops, with some of the bigger works. Also two self-portraits of Rubens, one of Jacob Jordaens and one of Sir Anthony Van Dyck. 

Maybe because I was alone. Maybe because coronavirus countermeasures created a ‘hurry up’ atmosphere. But I did the tour in less than an hour.

More on Rubens

• ANTWERP | Rubens House to close on 9 January 2023 and reopen in 2027.
• Antwerp’s Rubens House to have new visitor centre by 2024.
• 75 years of Rubens House.
• VIDEO | Flanders Stay At Home Museum – Sir Peter Paul Rubens.
• Rubens’ self portrait back in Rubens House Antwerp.

Art and museums in Antwerp

• 2022 in the museums of Antwerp.
• 75 years of Rubens House.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp 2021.
• ‘Freight’ and ‘Listen’ exhibitions at MAS in Antwerp.
• ‘Masculinities: Liberation through Photography’ exhibition at FOMU, Antwerp’s photography museum.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp.
• ‘Eurasia – A Landscape of Mutability’ exhibition at Antwerp’s M HKA modern arts museum.
• ANTWERP | Geert De Weyer Gallery, a space for illustrators’ and comic strip authors’ art.
• ‘Congoville’: contemporary artists walk colonial paths at Middelheim Museum in Antwerp.
• Antwerp’s Letterenhuis ft. Paul van Ostaijen exhibition.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp reopens on 4 and 5 September 2021 with ‘Fashion 2.021 Antwerp – Fashion/Conscious’.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus will exhibit long-lost illustration by Rubens: ‘Opticorum Libri Sex’.
• Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp finally to reopen on 25 September 2022.
• ‘100 X Congo’ exhibition at Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp.
• ‘Cool Japan’ exhibition, Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS), Antwerp, 18 October 2019 to 19 April 2020. 
• REVIEW | ‘Cool Japan’ exhibition at Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp from 18 October 2019 to 19 April 2020. 
• ‘On the road’ at Museum Plantin-Moretus.
• Red Star Line Museum.
• Paleis op de Meir. 
• Museum Mayer van den Bergh.
• DIVA, Antwerp Home of Diamonds.