Willem and Jaspar, the lads from the garden 

Were you a gardener in the 17th century? Then you were lucky. Were you a good gardener? Then noblemen and the well-to-do entrusted you with their gardens. They therefore paid you a considerable sum to get their gardens looking their best every season. A tasteful garden would be a green calling card. In other words, if you had the necessary funds to transform your garden, you were one of the happy few.   

Maintaining a garden was a lot of work. From digging, sowing and fertilising, to chopping, weeding and painting trellises and gates. It is a list of tasks that can be found on just about every garden contract from the time. From everything you could spot with the naked eye above the ground, to everything below it. It was no different with Rubens. Gardeners Willem and Jaspar worked together with kitchen maid Willemyne to bring the best of every season to the table.   

According to surviving documents, gardener William was paid the equivalent of around 1,000 euros a year to keep the garden of Rubens' city palazzo in fine fettle. Quite a high wage within Rubens' entourage at the time. That may have something to do with the special bond between Willem and the painter. There was a deep trust between the two men. When Rubens and his family stayed at their country residence Het Steen in Elewijt, Willem stayed behind, with access to the estate, to ensure the garden was cared for and didn't get overgrown.   

While Willem ran a tight ship as head gardener, his colleague Jaspar had a special task in the indoor garden. Round, orange and deliciously fragrant in summer: he was responsible for the orange trees and their harvest. A gift from Rubens' time in Italy? As one of Rubens' neighbours - living at De Blauw Banck on Hopland - gardener Jaspar was familiar with the fertile soil in the area. No wonder he was a highly sought-after gardener. In fact the most coveted among court gardeners. Then again, he had been born into that other famous Antwerp clan, the Moretus family.   

Take a look around Rubens' garden. You will spot the gardener's cottage. A garden house avant la lettre. Later renovation plans of the Rubenshuis show that city architect Emiel van Averbeke came up with the idea of the cottage. Not in the 17th century, the building dates from the first restoration of the Rubenshuis, between 1937 and 1946. Although Van Averbeke did take inspiration from the days when Willem and Jaspar were raking and sowing in the garden. As such, the city architect based the design on a print by Jacob Harrewijn's garden from 1692.

What exactly was the gardener's cottage used for? When Emiel van Averbeke restored it about 80 years ago, he thought the gardeners used it for their orangery plants. But there are no written sources to back that up. Chances are that William and Jaspar grew their citrus plants in the house three centuries earlier. So did they use it for garden equipment? Could well have been the case. The gardeners almost certainly had a spot in the garden where they stored their vast collection of spades, booms, flower pots and cleavers. Like countless other gardens in Antwerp at the time.   

Imagine yourself as William or Jaspar and discover the garden of the Rubenshuis!  

Curious to know how the roots from Rubens' garden are still growing centuries later? Experience the redesigned garden, a green oasis in the heart of Antwerp.   

Visit the garden