ng. This, perhaps more than his early studies, accounts for his
elegant scholarship.

His mother was quite determined that this son should be, like his
father, a lawyer. His own tastes, however, and a power to use the
brush early displayed, decided otherwise. It very soon became evident
that he was to be a painter--good or bad--who could tell in those
early days?

In accordance with a custom of the time, he was placed as a page in
the house of a nobleman of Antwerp. To the talented and restless boy
this life was intolerable, and he soon induced his mother to allow
him to enter the studio of Van der Haeght, a resident artist of some
repute and a close follower of Italian Art. He was only thirteen at
this time. Here he learned to draw skillfully and, through the
influence of his teacher, he acquired a love of landscape art which
never left him.

From Van der Haeght and his mild but correct art, Rubens, feeling his
weakness in figure work, went to the studio of the irascible and
forcible painter Van Noort, about whom critics have delighted to tell
stories of brutality. However true these may be, Rubens stayed with
him four years and never ceased to speak in praise of his master's
work. Here he became acquainted with Jordaens, who used often to paint
the animals in Rubens' landscapes.

From Van Noort's studio the restless Rubens went to study with Van
Veen, who afterwards became court-painter. When the Archduke Albert
and Isabella entered Antwerp in 1594, it was Van Veen who decorated
the triumphal arches used on the occasion. We may judge that he did
the work well, for he was shortly selected to serve the new rulers as
court painter. Rubens' experience with Van Veen closed a ten years'
apprenticeship in the studios of Antwerp, and now he determined to go
to Italy, where he could study the masters at first hand.

[Illustration: RUBENS' TWO SONS _Rubens_]

As a sort of parting work and, perhaps, because he wished to impress
more vividly on his mind those dear, strong features of his mother, he
painted that portrait of her which we so much admire both for its
subject and its art. This image of his mother was an effectual charm
to carry with him in his travels--a charm to save him perhaps, from
some of the stumbling places into which a handsome young man away from
home might wander.

In May of 1600, after making all needful preparation, our artist set
out on his journey. It was natural that he should direct his