The Rubens House is the former home of the world-famous painter Peter Paul Rubens. In 1610, after his marriage to Isabella Brant, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) remodeled a house in the "Vaartstraat" and the "Herentalse Vaart", what is now called the "Wapper" in Antwerp, Rubens had made the plans for his palace himself, inspired by the Italian Renaissance palaces.
It became a home and studio with a monumental "portico" in the courtyard. The garden behind the Rubens House was built in Flemish-Italian Renaissance style, it formed an architectural whole with the buildings and the garden pavilion in the Baroque style. Flowers, vegetables, and fruits were planted in beds surrounded by a low hedge.
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Next to the house, Peter Paul Rubens founded a large workshop in which students had to paint large panels and canvases, about 25.000 were made. It was a real paintings factory, but the master's name was a guarantee for the quality of the works. This allowed Rubens to ask high prices at the many foreign princes and nobles he had as customers.
In his private studio upstairs of the workshop, Rubens made drawings, portraits, and smaller paintings, and he conducted extensive correspondence with the customers in Flanders, The Netherlands, and other nations. There are about 5000 letters preserved in both Dutch, French, Latin, and above all, Italian.
The house is now a museum and can be visited daily from 10.00 till 17.00. You can find the Rubenshouse at this address: Wapper 9-11, Antwerp. More about the museum here