Young woman in a fur wrap (after Titian) c.1629-30

Young woman in a fur wrap (after Titian) was closely inspired by Italian artist Titian’s Girl in a fur wrap c.1535–37, completed a century earlier. Titian’s painting depicts Giovanna of Milan and Aragon (1502–75).

Though this work expresses Peter Paul Rubens’s admiration for the Venetian master, the portrait is not a servile copy. Instead, it incorporates aspects of Rubens’s own distinctive style of fleshy abundance, translated onto the same pose and garments worn by the earlier sitter. Rubens executed at least one other work after the Titian original, which also served as the prototype for the famous portrait of his second wife, Helena Fourment in a fur wrap 1638.

Rubens was a prolific artist whose studio undertook commissions from the courts of France, Spain and England. He was also a businessman, scholar, collector, courtier and diplomat. In 1629, Rubens was knighted by King Charles I while on a peace mission to England. It was during this period that he had the opportunity to study Titian’s painting, then in the royal collection.