The Rubens House > Museum > House and garden
House and garden
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"His home will awaken the astonishment of strangers, the admiration of travellers." This is what the town clerk of Antwerp wrote of the house of Rubens in 1620.
At the time, Rubens had lived in his magnificent building for five years. He had designed it himself: lavish and provocative, yet stately nonetheless.
Today the Rubens House stands as one of the most renowned artist residences in the world.
Together with his first wife Isabella Brant, Rubens bought a house with land in 1610 on the Wapper in Antwerp. Based on his own design, he had the house renovated and expanded. It became a home in the old Flemish style along with a lavish Southern Baroque studio. The two sections were elegantly joined by way of a grandiose portico. Together they formed a genuine palazzo on the Scheldt.
Architecture
You step inside the Rubens House as Rubens wanted to: through the main porchway, which gives on to the elegant inner courtyard.
Renaissance garden
We no longer know what Rubens’ garden looked like exactly. What you see today is a reliable reconstruction.