Helena Fourment
Helena Fourment by Jan Boeckhorst, c. 1630
Born	11 April 1614 Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands
Died	15 July 1673(1673-07-15) (aged 59) Brussels, Spanish Netherlands
Nationality	Flemish
Other names	Hélène Fourment
Spouses	Peter Paul Rubens ​ ​ (m. 1630; died 1640)​ Jean-Baptiste de Brouchoven ​ ​ (m. 1645)​
Children	11, including Jean and Hyacinthe-Marie
Relatives	Susanna Lunden (sister) Alexander Rubens, Lord of Vremdyck (grandson) Stéphanie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (great-great-great granddaughter)

Helena (or Hélène) Fourment (11 April 1614 – 15 July 1673) was the second wife of Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens. She sat for a few portraits by Rubens, and also modeled for figures in Rubens' religious and mythological paintings.

Helena Fourment was the youngest child of Daniël Fourment the elder, a wealthy Antwerp silk and tapestry merchant, and Clara Stappaerts. She had four brothers and six sisters. After his death, her father left to his son Daniël II an important collection of tapestries of Oudenaarde, Brussels and Antwerp, 35 paintings of his son-in-law Rubens, a large painting of Jordaens and several works of Italian masters.^[1] Most of her sisters married into important families.

Helena Fourment married Rubens on 6 December 1630 in the Saint James Church in Antwerp,^[5] when she was 16 years old and he was aged 53. Rubens' first wife, Isabella Brant, had died in 1626. Helena's brother Daniël Fourment the younger was married to Clara Brant, the sister of Isabella. Her father Daniël Fourment the elder was an art lover and possessed works by Rubens and Jacob Jordaens, and works by Italian masters; he also commissioned from Rubens a series of tapestries depicting the life of Achilles.^[6]

After the death of Rubens, Helena started a relationship with Jean-Baptiste de Brouchoven, assessor and alderman of Antwerp, who later became 1st Count of Bergeyk.^[7] On 9 October 1644 their first son Jean de Brouchoven, 2nd Count of Bergeyck, was born, and Helena and Jean-Baptist married in 1645. Her second husband, who was a military knight of St-Iago, outlived her and died during a diplomatic mission in Toulouse in 1681.^[8]

Helena died in Brussels in 1673 aged 59. She was buried together with her first husband, children and parents in the Saint James' Church in Antwerp. Amongst the many descendants of her grandson the 3rd Count of Bergeyck we find Louis de Brouchoven de Bergeyck and his great-granddaughter Stéphanie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.

Helena Fourment was said to be very beautiful, amongst others by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria, then Governor of the Netherlands, stating that she was "undoubtedly the most beautiful one may see here",^[10] and by the poet Gaspar Gevartius, a friend of Rubens, who praised "Helen of Antwerp, who far surpasses Helen of Troy".^[11]

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  Helena Fourment by Rubens, c. 1630, Alte Pinakothek
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  Helena Fourment by Rubens, c. 1630, Cook collection
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  The four children of Rubens and Helena Fourment with maids by Philip Fruytiers, circa 1638-9, Royal Collection
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  Helena Fourment with two of her children by Rubens, c. 1635, Louvre
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  Helena Fourment with her Son Frans by Rubens, c. 1634–1635, Alte Pinakothek
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  Portrait of Helena Fourment, c. 1638, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian
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  Rubens with Helena Fourment and their son Peter Paul by Rubens, 1639, Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  Helena Fourment with a Carriage by Rubens, 1639
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  Helena Fourment with her first husband Rubens and their child Nicolaas by Rubens

• Helena Fourment in wedding dress, Munich, Alte Pinakothek, 1630–1631; a studio copy of this work is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum
• Pörtrait of Helena Fourment with a glove, Munich, Alte Pinakothek (same as above?)
• Helena Fourment with her eldest son Frans, 1635, Munich, Alte Pinakothek
• Rubens and Helena Fourment walking in their garden, Munich
• Helena Fourment with her children Clara, Johanna and Frans, 1636-1637, Louvre
• Helena Fourment and Frans Rubens, Louvre
• Rubens, his wife Helena Fourment, and their son Peter Paul, c. 1639, Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Portrait of Helena Fourment(?) a studio work in the collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels
• Portrait of Helena Fourment(?) a 17th-century work from Antwerp, Rubenshuis

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  Helena Fourment in a Fur Wrap, also known as Het Pelsken by Rubens, 1636-1638, Kunsthistorisches Museum
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  Pastoral Scene
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  Andromeda
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  Venus, Mars and Cupid
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  The feast of Herodes and Salome
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  The Origin of the Milky Way
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  Judgment of Paris
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  The Three Graces
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  Feast of Venus (detail)

• Judgment of Paris, Museo del Prado (the Venus-figure is modelled on Helena Fourment)
• The Garden of Love, Prado, 1630–1633
• Het Pelsken, 1638, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
• The Origin of the Milky Way, c. 1637

• 
  Portrait of a woman, possibly Clara Fourment by Rubens, c. 1630, Mauritshuis
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  The Felt Hat, probably a portrait of Susanna Fourment by Rubens, c. 1622, National Gallery
• 
  Susanna Fourment and her daughter by Anthony van Dyck, 1621, the National Gallery of Art

• Brendel, Maria L. (2011). Die Macht der Frau. Rubens' letztes Modell Helene Fourment (in German). Berlin: Parthas. ISBN 978-3-86964-037-2.
• Liedtke, Walter A. (1984). Flemish paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 0870993569. (see index, v.1; Lunden, Susanna (née Fourment) for information about her daughter)

• Media related to Helena Fourment at Wikimedia Commons