Deborah Kip, Wife of Sir Balthasar Gerbier, and her Children
Artist: Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)
Date: 1629-1630
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States
Description
Deborah Kip and four of her children are shown on a terrace elaborately appointed with entwined caryatids that support a bower, a setting that points to the family's elevated status. Their prosperity is also evident in Deborah Kip's elegantly embroidered skirt and lustrous blouse and cap. Perched on her chair is a blue-gray parrot, a symbol of aristocratic wealth and an allusion in Christian art to the Virgin Mary, the perfect mother. As she holds the baby on her lap, son George holds back a curtain; Elizabeth, dressed entirely in black, is serene and composed; and Susan rests her arms on her mother's knee and returns our gaze. Despite the elegant setting and the bravura brushwork, Rubens controlled the composition so that the tender relationship between the mother and her children remains the focus.