Rubens and Isabella Brant in the honeysuckle bower.

About Rubens and Isabella Brant in the honeysuckle bower

The Honeysuckle Bower is a self-portrait of the Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens and his first wife Isabella Brant, painted c. 1609.The couple is seated in fine clothes within a garden composition and a vine of honeysuckle is placed overhead. The symbolism of the double-portrait alludes to meanings of love and marriage, such as the holding of right hands, and the concept of the garden of love. The pose of the two figures and their fine clothing signify self-fashioning by Rubens. They wed in 1609, the same year that work was created; it was ultimately given to Isabella's father Jan Brant and would later end up in the collection of Johann Wilhelm II of Düsseldorf. The couple would be married for seventeen years, and have three children before Isabella died in 1625. Her death would have a profound impact on Rubens and through his loss he created an posthumous portrait.