The Holy Family on the Steps

1648

We look up at two women, two young boys, and a man, all with pale skin, sitting together on a wide landing, with stairs leading up to stone buildings behind the group and a patch of vivid blue sky in the upper right corner of this horizontal painting. At the center, a woman, Mary, sits holding a nearly nude child propped on one knee. Her body is angled to our right but she turns her head to look off into the distance to our left with large, dark eyes under faint brows. Her strawberry-blond hair is pulled back under a white veil that falls down the back of her neck and across her chest. Her smooth cheeks are lightly flushed in her round face. She has a straight nose and her pink, bow lips are closed. She wears a coral-red dress under a long, azure-blue robe that wraps around her waist and covers her legs. The sandaled toes of one foot peek from under the hems, and her other foot rests up on a gold-colored, rounded urn. Mary holds one child on her lap, and the second child sits by her right side, to our left. Both toddlers have blond, curly hair, dark eyes, rounded faces, and slightly pudgy bodies. Swaths of pale gray drapery mostly cover the genitals of both. The child on her lap half-sits, half-stands on the knee propped up on the urn. She supports his belly with one hand, the other wraps around his bottom. He leans forward, toward the second child, who faces him and holds up a yellow and blush-red fruit. Behind him, to our left, an older woman sits leaning forward and facing Mary in profile. Her wrinkled face is mostly lost in shadow, and she has a hooked nose and her forehead is lined, as if her eyebrows are raised. A white veil is wrapped around her head and drapes over the shoulders of her long, canary-yellow dress. One foot is crossed behind the other ankle, and the toes of both peep out from under her dress. To our right of Mary, a bearded man, Joseph, wears an eggplant-purple robe and sits almost entirely in shadow, facing our right in profile. The leg closer to us is extended and his foot stretches out of the shadow. He has short, curly brown hair and a long gray beard. He holds a carpenter’s compass to a panel in front of him. Closest to us, a step down runs along the bottom edge of the painting. On that step, a basket with leaves and yellow and peach-colored fruit sits in front of the standing child. Near Mary’s feet is a bronze-colored urn and a shiny gold box on raised feet. Behind the older woman to our left, water trickles from a round-bellied fountain on a pedestal in front of an orange tree. One building with round columns rises behind the tree. Behind Joseph, a long stick rests against the post of a short flight of four steps, which leads to another landing. The portico of a second temple-like building with squared columns and leafy capitals rises over Mary, presumably from the upper landing. A bright, topaz-blue sky with cream-white and steel-gray clouds fills the upper right corner of the composition.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 36

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 68.7 x 97.8 cm (27 1/16 x 38 1/2 in.)
    framed: 89.7 x 118.4 x 6.4 cm (35 5/16 x 46 5/8 x 2 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1952.5.49

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly Jacques Amelot du Quillou, marquis de Mauregard [1602-1688, later marquis de Gournay], by c. 1668.[1] possibly Henri de Guénégaud de Fresne, marquis de Plancy et de Guercheville, comte de Montbrison [1609-1676].[2] possibly marquis de Lassay; (his sale, Joullain fils, Paris, 22 May 1775, no. 43).[3] George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd duke of Sutherland [1786-1861], Stafford House, London;[4] by inheritance to his son, George Granville William Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 3rd duke of Sutherland [1828-1892], Stafford House; Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 4th duke of Sutherland [1851-1913], Stafford House; (his estate sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 11 July 1913, no. 34); (Thos. Agnew and Sons, Ltd., London); sold 14 July 1913 to the Dowager Duchess Sutherland [presumably the 4th Duke's widow]; Trustees of the 4th duke of Sutherland; sold 7 January 1948 to (Thos. Agnew and Sons, Ltd., London); sold 5 May 1949 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] In documents dating before the 1830s, it is difficult to identify with any degree of certainty which version of The Holy Family on the Steps is being described, the painting owned by The Cleveland Museum of Art or the NGA painting. The NGA painting can be identified securely only after it entered the Duke of Sutherland collection in the 1830s. For the most up-to-date study of the provenance based on all available information, see Roger Diederen, "Provenance: "Holy Family on the Steps," Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 4 [Volume accompanying the exhibition Poussin's 'Holy Family on the Steps' at The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999-2000], 1999: 177-184, and note 5 below. Concerning Jacques Amelot's possible ownership of the Washington painting, see Diederen 1999, 178.
[2] See Diederen 1999, 178.
[3] The NGA painting is identified as the one in this sale on the grounds that the measurements of the described painting match more closely those of the NGA version than those of the version of the painting in the Cleveland Museum of Art; see Diederen 1999, 179.
[4] Diederen 1999, 180. Anna Brownell Jameson, Companion to the Most Celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London: The Collection of the Duke of Sutherland at Stafford House, styled The Sutherland Gallery, London, 1844: 197, no. 74, described the painting as in the Duke of Sutherland collection; Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian, Oxford, 1977: 277-278, suggests that the duke acquired the painting between 1833 and 1837; Anthony Blunt, The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin. A Critical Catalogue, 2 vols., London, 1966: 39-40, states that it was in the Sutherland collection by 1844 based on Jameson's publication.
[5] Marijke Booth and Venetia Harlow, archivists at Christie's and Agnew's, respectively, kindly provided the provenance of the painting from the 1913 sale through the 1949 purchase by the Kress Foundation. The painting has two stock numbers in the Agnew's records, 4329 in 1913 and 9766 in 1948. See e-mails of 18 December 2008 and 9 January 2009, to Anne Halpern, in NGA curatorial files. See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1059.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1938

  • Seventeenth-Century Art in Europe. (Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts.) London, 1938: 55-56.

1947

  • Loan Exhibition of French Painting of the xviith Century. (Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co.) London, 1947: no. 33.

1950

  • Le dessin français de Fouquet à Cézanne. (Exh. cat. Orangerie.) Paris, 1950: under no. 32.

1958

  • Age of Louis xiv. (Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts.) London, 1958: no. 280.

1982

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. La peinture française du xvii e siècle dans les collections américaines. (Exh. cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais; Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Art Instituteof Chicago.) Paris, 1982. English ed., France in the Golden Age: Seventeenth-Century French Paintings in American Collections. New York, 1982: 371.

1994

  • Rosenberg, Pierre, and Louis-Antoine Prat. Nicolas Poussin 1594 – 1665. (Exh. cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais.) Paris, 1994: 20, 397-402, no. 173.

1995

  • Verdi, Richard, et al. Nicolas Poussin 1594-1665. (Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts.) London, 1995: 14, 46, 194-195, 263-265, no. 60.

1996

  • Obras Maestras de la National Gallery of Art de Washington, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, 1996-1997, unnumbered catalogue, 54-55, color repro.

  • France in the Golden Age. (Exh. cat. Walpole Gallery.) London, 1996: under no. 21.

1999

  • A Painting in Focus: Nicolas Poussin's `Holy Family on the Steps', The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999-2000, pl. 5.

Bibliography

1666

  • Félibien, André. Entretiens sur les vies et sur les ouvrages des plus excellens peintres anciens et modernes. 6 vols. 1st ed. Paris, 1666-1688. Reprint Trévoux, 1725: 4:59.

1699

  • Le Comte, Florent. Cabinet des singularitez d’architecture, peinture, sculpture et gravure ou, Introduction à la connoissance des plus beaux arts, figures sous les tableaux, les statués, & les estampes. 3 vols. Paris, 1669 – 1700. 2nd ed. 1702: 3:36.

1783

  • Cambry, Jacques de. Essai sur la vie et sur les tableaux du Poussin. 2nd ed. Paris, 1783: 53.

1829

  • Smith, John. A Catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French painters. 9 vols. London, 1829 – 1842. 8(1837):41, no. 78.

1844

  • Jameson, Anna Brownell. Companion to the Most Celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London: The Collection of the Duke of Sutherland at Stafford House, styled The Sutherland Gallery. London, 1844: 41, no. 78.

1854

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Manuscripts. 3 vols. London, 1854: 2:66.

1863

  • Andresen, Andreas. Nicolaus Poussin, Verzeichniss der nach seinen Gemälden gefertigten, gleichzeitigen und späteren Kupferstiche. Leipzig, 1863: 39, no. 135.

1877

  • Guiffrey, J. Jules. “Testement et inventaire des biens, tableaux, dessins, planches de cuivre, bijoux, etc. de Claudine Bouzonnet-Stella rédigés et écrits par elle-meme 1693 – 1697.” Nouvelles archives de l’art français 5 (1877): 30, no. 40.

1884

  • Bonnaffé, Edmond. Dictionnaire des amateurs français au xvii e siècle. Paris, 1884: 16.

1907

  • Friedlaender, Walter. "Nicolas Poussin." In Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. 37 vols. Edited by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 27(1933): 325.

1909

  • Rouart, Louis. “Un tableau du Poussin.” Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire de l’Art Français 1908 (1909): 92 – 93.

1914

  • Friedlaender, Walter. Nicolas Poussin. Die Entwicklung seiner Kunst. Munich, 1914: 92, 119.

  • Grautoff, Otto. Nicolas Poussin: sein Werk und sein Leben. 2 vols. Munich and Leipzig, 1914: 1:269-270, 2:no. 131.

  • Magne, Emile. Nicolas Poussin: premier peintre du roi, 1594 – 1665. Brussels, 1914: 213, no. 241.

1933

  • Friedlaender, Walter. "Nicolas Poussin." _ Thieme-Becker 1907-1950 _, 27 (1933): 321-327.

1938

  • London 1938. "Seventeenth-Century Art in Europe." (Exh. Catalog Royal Academy of Arts.) London, 1938, no. 337.

  • Borenius, Tancred. “French School at Burlington House.” The Burlington Magazine 72 (Feb. 1938): 63.

  • Blunt, Anthony. “Blake’s Ancient of Days. The Symbolism of the Compasses.” Journal of the Warburg Institute 2, no. 1 (July 1938): 55-56.

1939

  • Weigert, Roger-Armand. Bibliothèque nationale: inventaire du fonds français — graveurs du xvii e siècle. 4 vols. Paris, 1939 – 1961: 2:81, no. 12.

  • Friedlaender, Walter, and Anthony Blunt, eds. The Drawings of Nicolas Poussin: Catalogue Raisonné Studies of the Warburg Institute. 5 vols. London, 1939 – 1974: 1(1939):20, 22, C1, 25, 26, 27, 28.

1947

  • London 1947. "A Loan Exhibition of French Painting of the XVIIth Century." (Exh. cat. Wildenstein & Co.) London, 1947: no 33.

1948

  • Bertin-Mourot, Thérese." Addenda au catalogue de Grautoff depuis 1914." Bulletin de la Société Poussin 2, no. 2 (Dec. 1948): 47, no. X.

  • Jamot, Paul. Connaissance de Poussin. Paris, 1948: 95, no. 139.

1950

  • Paris 1950. "Le dessin francais de Fouquet à Cezanne." (Exh. cat. Orangerie.) Paris, 1950: under no. 32.

1951

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 218, no. 97, repro., as by Poussin.

  • NGA 1951 Suida, William E. "Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1945-1951." Washington, 1951: 218.

1952

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Interpreting Masterpieces: Twenty-four Paintings from the Kress Collection." Art News Annual 16 (1952): 116-117, repro. 119.

1954

  • Blunt, Anthony. Art and Architecture in France: 1500 to 1700. London and Baltimore, 1954: 191-192.

  • Licht, F. S. Die Entwicklung der Landschaft in den Werken von Nicolas Poussin. Berlin, 1954: 157.

1955

  • Wildenstein, Georges. “Les graveurs de Poussin au XVIIe siecle.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts ser. 6, 46(Sept. – Dec. 1955): 169-170, no. 52. (Reprint Paris, 1957, as Les graveurs de Poussin au xvii e siècle.)

1956

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 40, repro., as by Poussin.

  • Walker, John. "The Nation's Newest Old Masters." The National Geographic Magazine 110, no. 5 (November 1956): 40, repro., as by Poussin.

1957

  • Alazard, Jean. Nicolas Poussin, 1594 – 1665. Milan, 1957: fig. 39.

  • Bertin-Mourot, Thérese. “Une copie ancienne d’apres Poussin au Musée de Chaumont.” Bulletin de la Société Poussin: Poussin Inconnu 1:3 – 7. Paris, 1957: 1 n.3, 4-7.

1958

  • Bertin-Mourot, Thérese. “Correspondance.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts ser. 6, 51 (1958): 366.

  • London 1958. "Age of Louis XIV." (Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts.) London, 1958: no. 280.

1959

  • Cooke, Hereward Lester. French Paintings of the 16th-18th Centuries in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1959 (Booklet Number Four in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 20, color repro., as by Poussin.

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 339, repro., as by Poussin.

  • Bertin-Mourot, Thérese. “Certitudes et incertitudes a propos de la Vierge assise sur des degrés.” Bulletin de la Société Poussin: Poussin Inconnu 2 (1959): 1 – 8.

  • Thuillier, Jacques. “Poussin, Nicolas.” In Encyclopedia of World Art. 17+ vols. New York, 1966, 11:557.

  • National Gallery of Art. Paintings Other Than French in the Chester Dale Collection. Washington, 1959 (reprinted 1965): 339, repro., as by Poussin.

1960

  • Chastel, André, ed. Actes du colloque international Nicolas Poussin: Paris, 19 – 2 septembre 1958. Centre national de la recherche scientifique. Colloques internationaux sciences humaines. 2 vols. Paris, 1960: 1:305.

  • Julian, René. “Poussin et le Caravagisme.” In Actes du colloque international Nicolas Poussin: Paris, 19 – 21 septembre 1958. Centre national de la recherche scientifique. Colloques internationaux sciences humaines. 2 vols., edited by Andre Chastel, 1:225-232. Paris, 1960: 1:230.

  • Kauffmann, Georg. “La Sainte Famille à l’escalier et le probléme des proportions dans l’oeuvre de Poussin.” In Actes du colloque international Nicolas Poussin: Paris, 19 – 21 septembre 1958. Centre national de la recherche scientifique. Colloques internationaux sciences humaines. 2 vols., edited by Andre Chastel, 1:141 – 150. Paris, 1960: 1:147 n.11.

  • Kaufman, George. Poussin-Studien. Berlin, 1960: 13, 14, 34, 36 – 53, 54, 58, 61, 62, 64, 66, 79, 80 – 81, 91, 97 – 98.

  • Paris 1960. "Exposition Nicolas Poussin" (Exh. cat. Musée du Louvre.) Paris, 1960: 175, nos. 212-214.

1961

  • Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 139, color fig. 130, as by Poussin.

  • Bialostocki, Jan. Review of Georg Kaufmann, Poussin-Studien. The Art Bulletin 43, no. 1 (March1961): 68 – 72.

  • Blunt, Anthony. Review of Georg Kaufmann, Poussin-Studien. The Burlington Magazine 103, no. 699 (June1961): 285.

  • Ettlinger, Leopold D. Review of Georg Kaufmann, Poussin-Studien. Kunstchronik 14, no. 7 (1961): 196 – 199.

1962

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 104, color repro., as by Poussin.

  • Davies, Martin, and Anthony Blunt. “Some Corrections and Additions to M. Wildenstein’s ‘Graveurs de Poussin au XVIIe siecle.’” Gazette des Beaux-Arts ser. 6, 60 (July – Aug. 1962): 210, no. 52.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 204, repro., as by Poussin.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 105, as by Poussin.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:290, color repro., as by Poussin.

  • Blunt, Anthony. The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin. A Critical Catalogue. 2 vols. London, 1966: no. 53.

  • Friedlaender, Walter. Nicolas Poussin: A New Approach. New York, 1966: 29, 67-68, 75, 94, 160-163, 186, 160.

  • Einem, Herbert von. “Poussin’s Madonna an der Treppe.” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch 28 (1966): 31 – 48.

  • Thuillier, Jacques. "Poussin, Nicolas." _ Encyclopedia of World Art _ New York (1966): 11:557.

1967

  • Blunt, Anthony. Nicolas Poussin: The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts (1958). 2 vols. New York, 1967. Reprint London, 1995: 1:26, 181 – 282, 215, 224, 227, 256 n. 56, 257, 263 – 264, 335.

  • Bertin-Mourot, Thérese. “Poussin et le blason des Guénégauds.” Bulletin de la Société Poussin 4 (1967): 2 – 7.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 92, repro., as by Poussin.

  • Helsdingen, Hans Willem van. “Aantekeningen bij de ikonografie van Poussin.” Simiolus 3 (1968 – 1969): 153 – 179.

1969

  • Badt, Kurt. Die Kunst des Nicolas Poussin. 2 vols. Cologne, 1969: 1:139, 232 – 233, 260, 361, 498 – 500.

1972

  • Bandmann, Günter. “Bermerkungen zu Poussins Treppenmadonna.” Das Münster. Zeitschrift für Christliche Kunst und Kunstwissenschaft 25, nos. 5 – 6 (1972): 361 – 372.

1974

  • Blunt, Anthony. “The Complete Poussin.” Review of Jacques Thuillier, L’opera completa di Poussin. The Burlington Magazine, no. 861 (Dec. 1974): 761.

  • Thuillier, Jacques. L’opera completa di Poussin. Milan, 1974. French ed., Tout l’oeuvre peint de Poussin. Paris, 1974: no. 152.

  • Gash, John. Review of Howard Hibbard, Poussin: The Holy Family on the Steps. The Connoisseur 186 (June 1974): 153.

  • Hibbard, Howard. Poussin: The Holy Family on the Steps. New York, 1974: 1-117.

  • Young, Eric. Review of Howard Hibbard, Poussin: The Holy Family on the Steps. Apollo 100 (1974): 87.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 274, repro., as by Poussin.

1976

  • Dowley, Francis H. Review of Howard Hibbard, Poussin: The Holy Family on the Steps. The Art Bulletin 58 (June 1976): 297 – 300.

  • Harris, Ann Sutherland. Review of Howard Hibbard, Poussin: The Holy Family on the Steps. The Burlington Magazine 118 (Jan. 1976): 36 – 37.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 274-280, fig. 251, as by Poussin.

  • Pope-Hennessy, John. "Completing the Account." Review of Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, London 1977. Times Literary Supplement no. 3,927 (17 June 1977).

1979

  • Blunt, Anthony. The Drawings of Poussin. New Haven and London, 1979: 71, 192 n. 9.

  • Hoffmann, Konrad. “Poussin Treppenmadonna." Kritische Berichte, Mitteilungen des Ulmer Vereins Verbund für Kunst-und Kulturwissenschaften 7, nos. 4 / 5 (1979): 15 – 42.

1980

  • Wild, Doris. Nicolas Poussin. 2 vols. Zürich, 1980: 1:151 – 155, 193, 199, 200, 214, 216; 2: no. 138.

1981

  • Blunt, Anthony. “Poussin Reconsidered: A Second Autograph Version of Poussin’s Midas Washing at the Source of the Pactolus.” The Connoisseur 206 (March 1981): 226 – 228.

  • Hasel, Christa von. “Kontroverse um Poussin.” Weltkunst 51 (1981): 3834.

  • Laclotte, Michel, and Pierre Rosenberg. “Poussin’s Holy Family on the Steps in the Cleveland Museum of Art” (letter to the editor). The Burlington Magazine 123, no. 944 (Nov. 1981): 676.

  • Pace, Claire. Félibien’s Life of Poussin. London, 198: 124, 159, no. 59.2.

1982

  • Blunt, Anthony. “French Seventeenth-Century Painting: The Literature of the Last Ten Years.” The Burlington Magazine 124 (Nov. 1982): 707.

  • Brigstocke, Hugh. “France in the Golden Age.” Apollo 116 (July 1982): 12-13.

  • Lee, Sherman E. “Poussin’s Holy Family on the Steps in the Cleveland Museum of Art.” The Burlington Magazine 124, no. 948 (March 1982): 156 – 166.

  • Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. “Poussin’s ‘Holy Family on the Steps’ in the Cleveland Museum of Art: New Evidence from Radiography.” The Burlington Magazine 124, no. 959 (Nov. 1982): 664 – 671.

  • Nilson, Lisbet. “Poussin’s Holy Family Feud.” Art News 81 (1982): 78 – 82.

  • Verdi, Richard. Review of Doris Wild, Nicolas Poussin. i: Leben, Werk, Exkurse. ii: Katalog der Werke. The Burlington Magazine 124 (Apr. 1982): 249.

  • Rosenberg, Pierre. "La peinture français du XVI siècle dans les collections américaines." (Exh. cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Art Institute of Chicago.) Paris, 1982: 371. English ed. "France in the Golden Age: Seventeenth-Century French Paintings in American Collections." New York, 1982.

1983

  • Cropper, Elizabeth. Review of Oskar Bätschmann, Dialektik der Malerei von Nicolas Poussin. The Art Bulletin 65 (1983): 700 – 701.

  • Waterhouse, Ellis. “Shorter Notices, Letters: Poussin’s Holy Family on the Steps.” The Burlington Magazine 125 (Feb. 1983): 96.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 313, no. 413, color repro., as by Poussin.

  • Klemm, Alfred. “Poussin’s Holy Family on the Steps” (letter to the editor). The Burlington Magazine 126, no. 970 (Jan. 1984): 40.

  • Walker, John. "National Gallery of Art, Washington." New York, 1984: 313, no. 413, color repro., as by Poussin.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 319, repro., as by Poussin.

  • Wright, Christopher. Poussin Paintings. A Catalogue Raisonné. London, 1985: 92, 93, 95, 204, no. 140b.

  • Santucci, Paola. Poussin tradizione, ermetica e classicismo gesuita. Salerno, 1985: 73, 95.

  • Ford, Brinsley. "Pictures lost to the Nation." NACF Magazine 29 (Christmas 1985): 20.

1988

  • Léveque, Jean-Jacques. La vie et l’oeuvre de Nicolas Poussin. Paris, 1988: 47.

1990

  • Kemp, Martin. The Science of Art. New Haven and London, 1990: 127, 281.

  • Mérot, Alain. Nicolas Poussin. New York, 1990: 176, 179, no. 42.

  • Somers Cocks, Anna. “Editorial: In Praise of Magnanimity.” Apollo (1990): 299.

  • Whalen, Karen S. “An Analysis of Nicolas Poussin’s Holy Family on the Steps of 1648.” Master’s thesis, University of Oregon, Portland, 1990: 1-152.

  • Bätschmann, Oskar. Nicolas Poussin. Dialectics of Painting. Trans. Marko Daniel. London, 1990: 25, 82-85. (First published in German, Zurich, 1982).

1991

  • Duret-Robert, François. “Le depart de la Madonna en correctionnelle.” ConnArts 478
    (1991): 150 – 151.

1993

  • Thompson, James. “Nicolas Poussin.” _ The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin_ 50 (1992 – 1993): 42.

  • Carrier, David. Poussin’s Paintings: A Study in Art-Historical Methodology. University Park, Pa., 1993: 90, 178 n. 2, 180, 181, 215 – 217.

  • Silver, Larry. Art in History. New York, 1993: 252.

1994

  • Rosenberg, Pierre, and Antoine Prat. Nicolas Poussin, 1594 – 1665: catalogue raisonné des dessins. 2 vols. Milan, 1994: 1:606, 608, 610, 616, 632, 634; 2:782, 992, 1032, nos. 313 – 317.

  • Thuillier, Jacques. Nicolas Poussin. Paris, 1994: 73, no. 172.

  • Bishop, Philip E. Adventures in the Human Spirit. Englewood Cliffs, 1994: 265.

  • Léveque, Jean-Jacques. Nicolas Poussin. Le poète de la rigueur, 1594 – 1665. Paris, 1994: 28-29.

  • Melikian, Souren. “Revising Art History: Drawings Reveal a Modern Poussin.” International Herald Tribune (Oct. 1 – 2, 1994): 7.

  • Rosenberg, Pierre, and Louis-Antoine Prat. "Nicolas Poussin 1594–1665." (Exh. ca. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais.) Paris, 1994: 20, 397-402, no. 173.

1995

  • Conisbee, Philip, and Ross Merrill. “Letters: Poussin’s ‘Holy Family on the Steps.’” The Burlington Magazine 137, no. 1102 (Jan. 1995): 37.

  • Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. A World History of Art. 4th ed. London, 1995: 549-550.

  • Verdi, Richard, et al. "Nicolas Poussin, 1594–1665." (Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts.) London, 1995: 14, 46, 194-195, 263-265, no. 60.

1996

  • Brigstocke, Hugh. “Variantes, copies et imitations. Quelques réflexions sur les méthodes de travail de Poussin.” In Poussin et Rome. Actes du colloque à l’Académie de France à Rome et à la Bibliotheca Hertziana. Ed. Oliver Bonfait. Paris and Rome, 1996: 210-212.

  • London 1996. "France in the Golden Age." (Exh. cat. Walpole Gallery.) London, 1996: under no. 21.

  • Mexico City and Washington 1996. "Obras Maestras de la National Gallery of Art." (Exh. cat. Museo Nacional de Antropologia.) Mexico City and Washington, 1996: unnumbered cat.

1997

  • Chorpenning, Joseph F. “The Enigma of St. Joseph in Poussin’s Holy Family on the Steps.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 60 (1997): 276 – 281.

1998

  • Chorpenning, Joseph F., ed. The Holy Family in Art and Devotion. Philadelphia, 1998: 42.

  • Fumaroli, Marc. L’ école du silence: le sentiment des images au xvii e siècle. Paris, 1998: 591-592.

  • Keazor, Henry. Poussins Parerga: Quellen, Entwicklung und Bedeutung der Kleinkompositionen in den Gemälden Nicolas Poussins. Regensburg, 1998: 19, 24 n. 57, 44, 71 n. 53, 131, 133 – 140; 153, 156.

1999

  • Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 4. Entire issue. Cleveland, 1999: 26-198.

  • Cropper, Elizabeth. “Conception and Deception: Poussin’s Mirrors.” In Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 1999: 76 – 95.

  • De Grazia, Diane. “Poussin’s Holy Family on the Steps in Context.” In Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 1999: 26 – 63.

  • De Grazia, Diane, and Marcia Steele. “The Grande Machine.” In Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 1999: 64 – 75.

  • Diederen, Roger. “Provenance: Holy Family on the Steps.” In Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 1999: 177 – 184.

  • Sawyer, Carol, assisted by Marcia Steele. “Poussin’s Holy Family on the Steps: New Technical Discoveries, Comparisons, and the Washington Copy.” In Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 1999: 112-160.

  • Steele, Marcia. “Appendix.” In Cleveland Studies in the History of Art 1999: 148 – 176.

  • Verdi, Richard. “The Modernity of the Holy Family on the Steps.” In Cleveland Studies of the History of Art 1999: 96 – 111.

2001

  • Szanto, Mickaël. “The Taste for Poussin in Paris: The Case of Pierre Hennequin de Fresne.” The Burlington Magazine 143, no. 1177 (Apr. 2001): 196 – 203.

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 84, 388-395, color repro.

2014

  • Brown, Jonathan. In the Shadow of Velázquez: A Life in the History of Art. New Haven, 2014: 100-101, fig. 54.

Inscriptions

On stretcher: paper label encapsulated in mylar, printed, "Poussin (Nicolas), 150La Sainte - Famille T 11 24, p. L 36 p."; encapsulated in mylar printed and written, "Royal Acadmey of Arts, Exhbition of 17th cent. European Art, 1938, N. Poussin, Holy Family, The Duke of Sutherland, K.T., Hampden Housen, Green Street, W. 1"; printed "THO' AGNEW & SONS Ltd"; cat 13077, Fine Art Publishers to H.M. King George V, London43, Old Bond St., Picadilly, W": printed and written, "VARNISH, applied on May, 1955, a special varnish, readily soluble in petroleum hydrocarbons. It is advisable that treatment on the surface coating be done only with the knowledge of persons familiar with this special material. M. Modestini, Curator, Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York 19, NY, NGA 1128, G56, K1642, Poussin Holy Family"; stamp or stencil on fragment of old linen, probably from an earlier linin fabric, now encapsulated in mylar; red wax seal, set by a previous restorer into the new stretcher.

Wikidata ID

Q20177242

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