The two innocent sleeping children seen here are thought to be Clara and Philip, the children of Rubens's elder brother. This elder brother, Philip, was extremely close to Rubens and he died in 1611.This work is a study work, revealing the freshness found in sketching directly from a subject, and yet it is a superb example of the artist's inimitable brush, particularly in the truly touchable depiction of the rich fleshiness of the children's cheeks. This is an example of Rubens's uncanny ability to evoke an image of his subject through an adroit use of transparent pigments and opaque pigments, adjustments of light and dark tonalities and differences in the thickness of paint application.
|