That Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) was one of the major figures of seventeenth-century painting and the founder of French classicism is well known. That he was also one of the great painters of landscape,and that his landscape paintings have had a profound impact on European art, are far less widely recognized. This is the first exhibition devoted exclusively to Poussin as a painter of landscapes, and we fully expect that these supremely poetic works of art will come as a revelation to many viewers.
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The work of the great French painter Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) is most often associated with classically inspired settings and figures depicting solemn scenes from mythology or the Bible. Yet he also created some of the most influential landscapes in Western art, endowing them with a poetic quality that has been admired by artists as different as ]ohn Constable, J. M. W. Turner, and Paul Cezanne. As the British critic William Hazlitt noted in 1821, "This great and learned man might be said to see nature through the glass of time."
This volume, which accompanies a major exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is the first in-depth examination of landscapes in Poussin's work. The artist's pictorial imagination and intelligence are affirmed in forty-five canvases.ranging from earlv Venetian-inspired pastorals to austere, grandly structured scenes and deeply poetic landscapes designed as metaphors for or allegories of the processes of nature.It is in his late landscapes that Poussin's imagination and his preoccupation with fate and humankind's interactions with nature are given free rein. Nearly fifty of the artist's drawings—the most luminous of which were done en pein air provide fascinating insight into Poussin's thematic interests and working methods. Essays by internationally renowned scholars examine the visual, literary, and philosophical influences on Poussin as well as his relationships with his patrons and his place in the art-historical canon. Comparative paintings, drawings, and engravings by Poussin and others illuminate the essays and complement the exhibited works.
Following the essays and a brief overview of key dates in the artist's life, noted Poussin scholar Pierre Rosenberg provides a detailed catalogue of the 113 works in the exhibition, exploring questions of authorship, dating, interpretation, and execution,often righting earlier mistakes and raising new questions. In a separate section of the catalogue,Rosenberg considers a selection of drawings traditionally attributed to Poussin but now considered more likely to be by followers and contemporaries.
This groundbreaking book gives the fullest possible representation of Poussin as a painter of landscapes, at the same time providing a unique occasion to explore the most personal side of this great artist's creative achievement.
Directors' Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Lenders to the Exhibition
Introduction: Encountering Poussin
PIERRE ROSENBERG
The Critical Fortunes of Poussin's Landscapes
KEITH CHRISTIANSEN
Poussin and the Roman Campagna: In Search of the Absolute
ANNA OTTANI CAVINA
The Conquest of Space: Poussin's Early Attempts at Landscape
ALAIN MEROT
"Peace and Tranquillity of Mind": The Theme of Retreat and Poussin's Landscapes
GLAIRE PACE
From The Storm to The Flood
RENE DEMORIS
"Nature through the Glass of Time": A Reflection on the Meaning of Poussin's Landscapes
WILLIBALD SAUERLANDER
A Brief Biography of Nicolas Poussin
KEITH CHRISTIANSEN
Catalogue
PIERRE ROSENBERG
I Poussin's Early Years in Rome
II Landscapes in a Noble and Heroic Style
III The Poetic Landscapes
IV Poussin's Landscape Drawings
V The "G Group" Drawings
Bibliography
Exhibitions
Index of Works by Nicolas Poussin
Index
Photograph Credits
