• From July to September 2022, the Rubenianum library added more than 140 books and articles to its collection. You may find a list of these acqusitions here (pdf) and on our website.

• Rubens was one of the first Flemish masters who engaged with reproducibility to distribute his oeuvre to a broader audience. After his death, reproductions of his work gradually multiplied, as did the (private) initiatives to collect and publish his oeuvre in print. But it is not until 1877, that the number of reproductions grew exponentially. The festivities organized for his 300th birthday celebration had a significant impact on the quantitative expansion of reproductions, coinciding with a shift from graphic to photographic reproduction techniques.
• The 1877 Rubens Year also initiated the scientific study of Rubens in Belgium with Max Rooses as a key figure. Rooses not only compiled the first illustrated oeuvre catalog on the artist in the following years (1886-1892), but also led the publicly funded ‘Committee to collect Rubens’ works in engraved and photographic reproduction’ (1880-1910).
• Both initiatives resonate with Ludwig Burchard’s creation of an extensive Rubens documentation, which since 1963 formed the basis of the collection of the Rubenianum.
• In 2024 the Rubenianum is moving its rich collection. The research institute is in full transition, shelves are being emptied and boxes are piling up. But what exactly are we packing? What is the value of the thousands of reproductions in the form of prints, photographs, and slides in various formats that have accumulated in the archive over the years? Can the seemingly endless sequence of books on Rubens and his contemporaries still tell us something new? And what space will these objects occupy in the future?

Sunday 6 November, the author will focus on Rubens's anatomical drawings in the Rubenianum Lecture "De anatomische studies van Rubens". More information on our website.

Art historian Lindsey Shaw-Miller (1951-) specializes in 17th-century artists who traveled or worked abroad, with a focus on Flemish artist Michael Sweerts. In 2017, she donated her documentation on Michael Sweerts (1618-1664) to the Rubenianum.

• The documentation reflects her research on this artist. The material also includes Malcolm Waddingham's (1927-2014) documentation on Sweerts.
• The documentation consists of thematically arranged folders and includes correspondence, photographs, excerpts from literature, notes and printed matter. Waddingham's documentation contains mostly visual material attached to cartons.

• Closing dates in November and December are:
  • Monday 31 October: day of obligation
  • Tuesday 1 November: All Saints' Day
  • Friday 11 November: Armistice Day
  • From 26 December to 2 January 2023: Christmas holidays