"the Flesh-Tints of Rubens": Henry James' Contribution to the Construction of Englishness‪.‬

This essay analyzes Henry James" comments on Belgium, Flanders, and Flemish art in the context of nineteenth-century English literature, imperialism, and the construction of an English identity. The Low Countries have always occupied a special place in the accounts of British travellers in that they provided an Other that helped define the English character, and Flanders in particular was seen as a country that in the eyes of the English tourist, owed its very existence to the heroic sacrifice of the English. The Renaissance painter Peter Paul Rubens is often used to symbolize the objectionable decadence of the Belgians, their culture, and their religion. Of course, James was an American who had not even settled in London at the time of his earliest writings on Flanders. Therefore, this essay compares James' early reflections on Belgium and Flanders with those of his English colleagues, and it also traces and analyzes his later comments in his nonfiction and his correspondence to find out whether there is an evolution in his thought and whether James' comments are in line with the typically English attitude toward Belgium and mark him as English. **********