(Siegen 1577–1640 Antwerp)
Archduke Albrecht of Austria on horseback, the beach of Ostende in the background,
oil on canvas, 120 x 83.5  cm, framed

Provenance:
sale Buisseret, Brussels, 1891;
Errera collection, Hôtel Errera, Brussels

This impressive portrait of Archduke Albert depicts the governor of the Spanish Netherlands at the pinnacle of his career, at the very moment of his most important military triumph during the war against the Protestant northern States-General: the capture of the rebellious port of Oostende in 1604. In September of that year, the northern troops surrendered the fortress to the Spanish army that had besieged the city for three years. To commemorate the event, Albert’s favourite artist, Peter Paul Rubens, was commissioned to paint an equestrian portrait of the victorious Habsburg prince. Rubens chose to depict Albert in the classic pose of the general on horseback, facing the viewer, with the commander’s sash on his left arm and the baton in his right hand. Over his breastplate, he is wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece. The original version, believed to be long lost, is most probably the painting with a similar format to the one offered here that Jan Brueghel the Elder documented in 1617 in an Allegory of Sight, today in the Prado, Madrid (see fig. 1). Rubens closely follows a compositional scheme that he had established before in his “Riding School”, which was documented in a version probably executed by the studio in Berlin, now lost (see fig. 2), in which the same rider is captured from three different angles. At one angle, the rider trots straight towards the viewer; a stance which apparently Albert thought fit for his own portrait. Numerous workshop versions of this important image of the Habsburg rule exist, and they are all in the surprisingly small format of the original which was documented by Brueghel. The present painting, together with a version in the princely collections, Liechtenstein, are the most similar to the lost original that was shown in Brueghel’s painting in the Prado and therefore must have been executed very close to the lost original in the flourishing Rubens workshop.

With the portrait of Archduke Albert, Rubens developed a successful formula for an impressive equestrian portrait, which was used by him and his studio on numerous other occasions. The portraits of Archduke Ernest of Austria (posthumous portrait, Royal Collection, Windsor Castle) and that of Crown Prince Władysław Vasa of Poland (Cracow, Wavel), among others, employ this formula. Other painters, most notably Van Dyck with his Portrait of King Charles I, were to use Rubens’ invention as a model for their compositions.

The present painting belonged to the Collection of the Errara Family, which was one of the most important in late 19th century Belgium. The Hotel Errera today is the seat of the Minister-President of Flanders in Brussels.

Additional image:
Fig. 1. Jan Brueghel I. and Peter Paul Rubens, Allegor y of Sight, Detail, Madrid, Museo del Prado, Inv. 1394
Fig. 2. Peter Paul Rubens (or Studio) The Riding School, Formerly Berlin, Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum