AP PHOTOS: Partial reopening of the Rubens House in Antwerp gives glimpse of painter’s life

Associated Press

ANTWERP, Belgium (AP) — The city palace of Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens is partly reopening this weekend. It allows Antwerp to show off the life and work of perhaps its most famous citizen. The Rubens House may not have as many paintings as Madrid’s Prado museum or the canvas surface spread around the port city’s Cathedral of Our Lady. But if there is any place that Rubens himself felt more at home it was his own house in Antwerp looking out over his garden. Rubens bought the house in 1610 and made it his studio and workshop. While the core of the house remains closed until at least 2030 for ongoing renovations, the dazzling new welcome center and the redesigned garden will open doors on Friday.