The Three Graces

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The Three Graces: Peter Paul Rubens

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Peter Paul Rubens Oil Painting - The Three Graces

Keywords: Graces

Work Overview: The Three Graces
Artist Peter Paul Rubens
Year 1639
Dimensions 221 cm × 181 cm (87 in × 71 in)
Style Baroque
Genre mythological painting
Media oil, wood
Location Museo del Prado, Madrid

The Three Graces is a 1635 oil painting of the Three Graces by Rubens.
The painting was held in the personal collection of the artist until his death, then in 1666 it went to the Royal Alcazar of Madrid, before hanging in the Museo del Prado.
There were other variations by Rubens on the theme of Three Graces.

The Three Graces is one of the artist's final works. He had portrayed this theme several times since about 1620, but only later adopted the form that prevailed in classical Antiquity, with the three figures forming a circle so that one of them has her back to the spectator. "They were the goddesses of pleasant charm, of charitable deeds and of gratitude . .. without them nothing would be graceful or pleasing. They gave people friendliness, uprightness of character, sweetness and conversation...They were presented as three beautiful virgins and were either completely naked or clothed in some fine, transparent fabric...They stood together all three so that two of their faces were turned towards the spectator and only one was turned away from him."

Rubens' late painting of three nude figures magnificently illustrates the artist's extraordinary handling of incarnate or human flesh tones. Rubens builds them up using the three primary colours yellow, red and blue. An unusually high proportion of blue is evident here. In this way, the human figure bears the same primary colours that make up the appearance of the world and the entire cosmos, and all that is gathered here in the landscape and flowers, the sky and the trees.

According to Hesiod’s Theogony, there were three Graces: Aglaia, which means radiance; Euphrosine, which means joy; and Thalia, which means flowering. Born of one of Zeus’s affairs, the three Graces were pure virgins who lived with the gods, served at the banquets and fostered joie de vivre. They served Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and were never bored. Rubens depicts them beside a fountain, under a garland of flowers in a landscape. The figures are based on classical sculpture, which is visible in the artist’s effort to reproduce the coldness of marble in their flesh. The circular rhythm and elegant undulation are customary characteristics of this artist, along with the grandiloquent shapes and warm colors he brought into his painting in his final years. The figure on the left is directly inspired by his second wife, Hélène Forment. Painted shortly after his marriage, it bears witness to the happiness of the artist’s life, which emerges in the sensuality of his paintings from that moment. This work belonged to the artist until his death in 1640 and was then acquired by Felipe IV and taken to Spain.

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Rubens spent his childhood in Antwerp and should become a lawyer according to the will of the Father.However, he turned to painting and was a pupil of Adam van Noort, and Otto van Veen Tobias Verhaecht. At the beginning of 1600 he traveled to Italy and Spain. When he returned eight years later to Antwerp, he worked in his own workshop. Many paintings were commissioned works for Maria de 'Medici. On May 30, 1640 he died of gout in his 63rd year in Antwerp.
HISTORY OF RUBENS MASTERPIECE "THE THREE GRACES"
The oil painting "The Three Graces" has the dimensions 182 x 220.5 cm and was painted on wood. The exact date is not known. Researchers assume that it was 1635-1639. Rubens, like many other painters used in his creative life motifs from Greek mythology. The Three Graces are known as motif by Sandro Botticelli, Raphael and Antonia Canova. You are in Greek mythology, goddesses of charm, also called Graces. Their names are Euphrosyne (mirth), Thalia (Cheer) and Aglaia (the Shining). Another well-known work of art with the design of the Three Graces is by Raphael and is 1503 - 1505 emerged. It hangs in the Musée Condé of the northern French town of Chantilly.

During the Spanish Civil War, between July 1936 and April 1939 Rubens artwork with other masterpieces have been brought to Geneva for the safety of the Madrid Museo del Prado. Responsible for this action was Jacques Jaujard, formerly responsible for Fine Arts in France.
THE ART THEFT OF RUBENS "THE THREE GRACES"
On 12/31/1966 invaded thieves in the Dulwich Picture Gallery , a by anbohrten a small door with dimensions of about 30 x 60 cm from the outside and away. Thus they bypassed the alarm system, which was activated only at the inputs and outputs. Because the diameter of the small opening only small or frame free paintings were stolen, including Rembrandt's "Young Girl at the Window" of 1645 and Rembrandt's Jacob de Gheyn III . There were also stolen more paintings by Rubens: "Three Women with a Cornucopia" and "St. Barbara ". The stolen works of art possessed at this time a total value of at least 7 million pounds.Nearly 50 years later, alone Rembrandt "Jacob de Gheyn III" has a value of about 13 million euros. The museum's management has offered only £ 1,000 reward for the recovery of the paintings.

A few days later a track to thieves was found under the direction of Detective Superintendent Charles Hewett. The unemployed ambulance driver Michael Hall was arrested as the only thief, and sentenced to five years in prison.

Rubens artwork returned to the Museo del Prado after the recovery.

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Peter Paul Rubens

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