regular and industrious life, and
executed many important works. He also received a large number of pupils
into his studio, and he has been accused of allowing them to paint
pictures which he called by his own name; but it is true that Rubens, with
his own hand, completed pictures of almost every kind, and so proved his
power as an artist.

He was fond of study, and could read and speak seven languages. He was in
the habit of having some one read aloud to him while he painted, and
preferred books of history and poetry. In 1620 he was invited to France by
Marie de Medicis, for whom he executed many works. Among them the most
important were scenes illustrating the life of this queen which decorate
some apartments in the Louvre.

In 1628 the Infanta Isabella sent him on a second mission to Spain, and
while there he painted many grand and important pictures, which are fine
examples of his gorgeous coloring. He proved himself so good a diplomatist
that he was sent to England to try to make peace between that country and
Flanders, in which he was successful. He was knighted by King Charles in
1630, and received the same honor from the king of Spain.

In 1630 he married Helena Forment, a niece of his first wife, who was but
sixteen years old. She became the mother of five children; he had two sons
by his first marriage, to whom Gevartius was tutor. Rubens made so many
portraits of both his wives and so often used them as models in painting
his large pictures, that their faces are familiar to all the world (Fig.
55).

Rubens made a valuable collection of all sorts of beautiful objects, and
lived luxuriously. After his death a portion of his collection was sold at
private sale for more than seventy-five thousand dollars. His death
occurred in 1640, and he was buried in a private chapel in the Church of
St. James in Antwerp; he had decorated this chapel with some works of his
own. His family erected a monument to him, upon which an epitaph written
by Gevartius was inscribed.

In painting Rubens was almost a universal genius, for he left a great
variety of works as well as a great number. About one thousand eight
hundred are ascribed to him: doubtless his pupils did much work on these;
but there is something of himself in all. They include historical,
scriptural, and mythological subjects, portraits, animals, _genre_
pictures, and landscapes. His style is a strange mingling of northern and
southern elements. His handling and