Nicolas Poussin

French, 1594 - 1665

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See all 28 works of art
Etienne Gantrel, Nicolas Poussin, The Gathering of Manna, before 1706, etching and engraving on laid paper, Gift of Faya Causey in memory of Philip Conisbee, 2024.83.1

The Gathering of Manna

Etienne Gantrel, Nicolas Poussin · before 1706 · etching and engraving on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2024.83.1

Jean Dughet, Nicolas Poussin, Eucharist, c. 1650, etching with engraving on two sheets of laid paper, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2020.102.3

Eucharist

Jean Dughet, Nicolas Poussin · c. 1650 · etching with engraving on two sheets of laid paper ·  Accession ID  2020.102.3

Nicolas Poussin, Road along a Winding River, c. 1648?, pen and brown ink, squared in black chalk, on laid paper, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. George Baer, 1986.96.2

Road along a Winding River

Nicolas Poussin · c. 1648? · pen and brown ink, squared in black chalk, on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1986.96.2

Twelve people and one child stand, sit, or kneel along a riverbank in this horizontal painting. All the people have pale or tanned skin, and are muscular. They are in various stages of undress, wearing robes of golden yellow, ruby red, petal pink, azure blue, or cream white. To our right of center, a man, Jesus, stands facing us with his arms crossed over his chest. He wears a blue robe wrapped loosely across his shoulders and across his hips. He looks down, his blond hair falling alongside his face, as another man, wearing red, pours water from a shallow dish onto his head. A white dove flies with wings spread overhead. To our right of Jesus, one kneeling person wearing white holds up Jesus’s blue robes and another looks on, wearing a sage green robe and holding a voluminous rose-pink cloth. To our left, a group of five men react by throwing up hands, pointing upward, or looking up. One man with a gray beard and hair stands and bows his head over praying hands. A young boy wraps the arm we can see across the praying man's hips. Three more men to the left of this group pause as they undress to look toward Jesus. All the men stand or sit among puddles as a river spans the width of the painting behind the group and winds into the distance to our right. At the center of the composition, three men stand or recline on a grassy mound on the far side of the river. Tucked under trees at the peak of the mound, a smudge of white could be another kneeling person. Two more people walk along a path that crests the mound to our left. Mountains in the distance are slate blue beneath a vivid blue sky streaked with white clouds.
Nicolas Poussin, The Baptism of Christ, 1641/1642, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1946.7.14

The Baptism of Christ

Nicolas Poussin · 1641/1642 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1946.7.14

Nicolas Poussin, Modello for a Ceiling: Diana and the Dead Endymion, the Judgment of Paris, and the Death of Adonis, 1640/1642 (?), pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 1973.28.1

Modello for a Ceiling: Diana and the Dead Endymion, the Judgment of Paris, and the Death of Adonis

Nicolas Poussin · 1640/1642 (?) · pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1973.28.1

A woman floats among billowing clouds over a rectangular stone coffin in this vertical painting. Ten nude, baby-like putti support her body, float alongside her, or scatter flowers, while more winged baby heads are tucked among the parchment-brown clouds. The woman and all the babies have pale, peachy skin. The woman rises with her body facing our left, almost in profile. She looks up with dark eyes so we see the underside of her straight nose, and her coral-pink lips are parted. Her chestnut-brown hair is pulled back, and a scarf of the same color wraps across her shoulders. Her rose-pink dress is belted under her bust. It has puffy long sleeves, and the bottom hem flutters around her bare feet. Her lower torso and legs are wrapped with a voluminous, azure-blue cloak. She reaches her hands slightly forward, palms facing up. All the babyish putti have short blond or light brown hair, chubby bodies, and rosy cheeks. Four hold up or support the woman's legs, and many of them reach, point, or look upward. Another floats near her right arm, farther from us. Below, a white cloth is bunched and draped over the side of the stone coffin closer to us. Three child-like putti scatter white flowers into the coffin, and more are on the ground around it. Two of those putti have wings, one in golden yellow and the other slate blue. The clouds around the woman seem to emanate from behind the coffin to swirl up and around her. Two more putti hold up the clouds along the top edge of the composition. The scene is flanked to either side by peanut-brown, fluted stone columns, which extend off the top edge of the composition. The sky beyond is streaked with apricot peach near the horizon and shifts to topaz blue above.
Nicolas Poussin, The Assumption of the Virgin, c. 1630/1632, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1963.5.1

The Assumption of the Virgin

Nicolas Poussin · c. 1630/1632 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1963.5.1

Nicolas Poussin, Figures Bathing in a Stream, pen and brown ink with brown wash on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1973.21.2

Figures Bathing in a Stream

Nicolas Poussin · · pen and brown ink with brown wash on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1973.21.2

Nicolas Poussin, Female Roman Statue Seen from the Back, pen and brush with brown ink over black chalk on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1973.49.1

Female Roman Statue Seen from the Back

Nicolas Poussin · · pen and brush with brown ink over black chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1973.49.1

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God the Father

Jean-Claude-Richard, Abbé de Saint-Non · 1773 · etching and aquatint ·  Accession ID  1950.1.118.222

""

Holy Family

Jean-Claude-Richard, Abbé de Saint-Non · 1773 · etching and aquatint ·  Accession ID  1950.1.118.221

Bibliography

1967

  • Blunt, Anthony. Nicolas Poussin: The A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts (1958). 2 vols. New York, 1967. Reprint London, 1995.

1994

  • Rosenberg, Pierre, and Antoine Prat. Nicolas Poussin, 1594–1665: catalogue raisonné des dessins. 2 vols. Milan, 1994.

  • Rosenberg, Pierre, and Louis-Antoine Prat. Nicolas Poussin 1594–1665. Exh. cat. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1994.

1995

  • Verdi, Richard, et al. Nicolas Poussin, 1594–1665. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1995.

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: 373-374.