The Straw Hat (Portrait of Susanna Lunden)

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The Straw Hat (Portrait of Susanna Lunden): Peter Paul Rubens

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Peter Paul Rubens Oil Painting - The Straw Hat (Portrait of Susanna Lunden)

Keywords: Straw, Hat, Portrait, Susanna, Lunden

Work Overview: The Straw Hat (Portrait of Susanna Lunden)
Peter Paul Rubens
Date: c.1625
Style: Baroque
Genre: portrait
Media: oil, wood
Dimensions: 55 x 79 cm
Location: National Gallery, London, UK

Portrait of Susanna Lunden or Le Chapeau de Paille (The Straw Hat) is a painting by Peter Paul Rubens. It is now in the National Gallery, London.

The portrait's subject is Susanna Lunden (née Fourment), elder sister of Rubens' future second wife Helena Fourment. The portrait probably dates to the time of Susanna's second marriage in 1622, to Arnold Lunden.

The sitter of the picture is probably Susanna Lundent, the sister of Helene Fourment, the second wife of Rubens. The title of the painting is "Straw hat" (Le chapeau de paille) from the 17th century, although the hat is not a straw hat. "Paille" is an old name for the baldachin, and the painter probably wanted to emphasize by this title the character of the hat.

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In landscape he introduced a panoramic breadth of space and movement that takes in the Flemish toughness of Bruegel and the Venetian sensuality of Titian. In history paintings such as The Rape of the Sabine Women (1635-40), which can be seen in the National Gallery, he depicts the body with a freedom that still seemed provocative to Picasso. His portraits, meanwhile, have an energetic engagement with their subject that breaks with the theatrical conventions of Renaissance portraiture.

Subject: Susanna Lunden (1599-1643), the probable subject of this portrait, was Rubens's sister-in-law. She was the daughter of an Antwerp silk and tapestry merchant for whom Rubens designed. Rubens married her younger sister Hélène in 1630. The painting dates from before Rubens's marriage and the ring suggests it was done soon after Susanna's second marriage.

Distinguishing features: This portrait sparkles; it perks you up. It is still the tonic it was when Rubens painted Susanna with a lightness that was new to art. That hat - which is felt, not straw, despite the name by which this portrait became known in later years - is absurd, a folly, so wide and floppy with its soft, fluffy peacock's feather. And her breasts are as bounteous a pair of Rubens beauties as the stereotyped image of the painter would lead us to expect.

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Susanna shares something with the painter and with us, and perhaps the reason the portrait has fascinated viewers down the years is that we are not sure quite what it is. She stresses her wedding ring, but there is a holiday feel to the blue skies of the portrait, as if we are in the country - although weather is brewing to the right of the picture. Susanna is in partial shadow, the sun coming from the left blocked by the big hat, and this shade suggests introspection. She looks neither at the portraitist nor at us, but away, as if shyly. Rubens paints her as someone not aware of the beauty that his painting reveals - or embarrassed by it.

There is a strong, unblushing eroticism in this painting, all the more forceful for being set in the real world. At the same time, it is mythic: Susanna has the separateness and brightness of a goddess. Her skin glows, her jewellery glitters, her red and grey robes are opulent. This is the compliment Rubens pays her in this flirtatious painting.

Inspirations and influences: This portrait influenced generations of painters, especially in the 18th century, when the more heroic versions of the baroque were rejected in favour of a comic and erotic version of the style, the rococo. You can see this painting echoed in portraits by Hogarth and Gainsborough. It is directly quoted by Elizabeth Vigée-LeBrun in her Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat (1782), which is in the National Gallery. In the 19th century, Rubens's everyday sensuality returned in the art of the impressionists, especially Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

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This painting is one of the most famous by Rubens in the Collection. The title 'Le Chapeau de Paille' (meaning The Straw Hat) was first used in the 18th century. In fact the hat is not straw; 'paille' may be an error for 'poil', which is the French word for felt. The hat, which shades the face of the sitter, is the most prominent feature of the painting.

The portrait is probably of Susanna Lunden, born Susanna Fourment, third daughter of Daniel Fourment, an Antwerp tapestry and silk merchant. Her younger sister Helena became Rubens's second wife in 1630.

Susanna Fourment married her second husband Arnold Lunden in 1622. The portrait probably dates from about that time. The direct glance of the sitter from under the shadow of the hat, together with the ring on her finger, suggests that the painting is a marriage portrait.

Rubens enlarged the painting as the work proceeded, adding a third strip of wood on the right and then enlarging the picture at the base. The additions created a greater expanse of sky, and Rubens added clouds to the right that contrast with the clearer sky to the left, from which the light falls across the body and hands.

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