A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning
Rubens's own country estate, Het Steen at Elewijt near Mechelen, on an autumn morning — the moated house partly survives.
Elewijt Castle
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning — at a glance
- Artist
- Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)
- Year
- c. 1636
- Movement
- Flemish Baroque
- Place
- Het Steen, Elewijt, near Mechelen, Belgium
- Viewpoint
- Rubens's own estate, composed and idealised — the moated tower still survives
- Medium
- Oil on panel (joined boards)
- Dimensions
- c. 131 × 229 cm
- Now at
- The National Gallery, London
Overview
A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning is a large late landscape by Peter Paul Rubens, painted about 1636 for his own pleasure rather than on commission. It shows his country house at the left under low autumn sunlight, with a cart and huntsman in the foreground, cattle, a milkmaid, wide fields and hedgerows, and the towers of Mechelen far off on the horizon. It is oil on panel, made up of many joined boards, about 131 by 229 cm, and it hangs in the National Gallery, London.
The story behind the painting
Scholarship In 1635, near the end of his life, the wealthy and successful Rubens bought the estate of Het Steen at Elewijt, between Brussels and Mechelen, with a moated manor house and a title of lordship to go with it. He spent his last summers there, and painted the surrounding country in a series of expansive landscapes kept in his studio; this and its companion, ‘The Rainbow Landscape’ (Wallace Collection), are the grandest.
Where was A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning painted?
Scholarship Het Steen still exists at Elewijt, in the Flemish province of Antwerp near Zemst. The medieval moated tower and gatehouse that Rubens owned survive, incorporated into a house much altered and extended in later centuries; it is privately owned and not generally open. Rubens rearranged the flat Brabant farmland for effect and pushed the towers of Mechelen into the view, so the picture is a composed, idealised portrait of his estate rather than a survey.
What is in the painting?
At the left, the turreted house and its formal garden sit among trees behind the moat, warm in the raking morning light. In the foreground a wagon loaded with produce, driven by a man with a woman beside him, sets off along a rutted track; a huntsman with a gun stalks a covey of partridges by a fallen tree; a stream and a plank bridge cross the middle ground. Cattle and a milkmaid are in the fields; the land rolls back through hedgerows and copses to a bright horizon and distant spires under a sky of high pink-lit cloud.
Look closely
The moated house
The turreted manor and its garden sit among trees behind the moat at the left, gold in the low sun.
The loaded wagon
A produce cart with a man and woman sets off down a rutted track in the foreground.
The huntsman
A man with a gun and a dog stalks partridges beside a fallen tree.
Mechelen on the horizon
Distant spires — the towers of Mechelen — brought into the far view.
The dawn sky
High cloud lit pink by a sun just risen, cooling towards the horizon.
Analysis
Composition & perspective
The house anchors the left; a low sun and a diagonal track open the land out across the panel to a far horizon.
Scholarship Rubens builds a deep, panoramic recession from the dark, detailed foreground incidents on the left to the luminous distance on the right, tying near and far with the line of the track, the stream and the hedges. The many small vignettes — cart, hunter, cattle — animate the sweep without breaking it.
Colour and light
Warm gold and russet of an autumn dawn on the left, cooling to silver and pale blue in the far distance.
Rubens keys the whole picture to low, warm sunlight: golden on the house and the near trees, catching the wagon and the cattle, then thinning to cool grey-blue and pink at the horizon. The brushwork is free and rapid for such a large, finished work.
History & provenance
The painting was still in Rubens's studio at his death, later reached England, and was bought by Sir George Beaumont, whose gift helped found the National Gallery, London; it has been there since 1823–28.
Sources
- The National Gallery, London — collection entry for Peter Paul Rubens, ‘A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning’ (c. 1636; oil on panel, c. 131 × 229 cm)
- Christopher Brown, ‘Making & Meaning: Rubens's Landscapes’ (National Gallery, 1996)
Frequently asked
Whose house is this?
Rubens's own. He bought the country estate of Het Steen at Elewijt, near Mechelen in Brabant, in 1635, and painted this view of it about a year later.
Does Het Steen still exist?
Yes, in part. The medieval moated tower and gatehouse survive at Elewijt (province of Antwerp, Belgium), built into a much-altered later house. It is privately owned and not generally open to visitors.
Is the view accurate?
Broadly, but composed. Rubens smoothed and rearranged the flat Brabant farmland and brought the distant towers of Mechelen into the picture; it is an idealised portrait of his estate, not a survey.
Does it have a companion painting?
Yes — ‘The Rainbow Landscape’, now in the Wallace Collection, London, painted at about the same time and showing the same countryside under a rainbow. The two are often discussed and exhibited as a pair.
Where is the painting now?
In the National Gallery, London, since the 1820s.
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