 |
| after Louis Ferdinand Elle Portrait of Nicolas Poussin 1757 etching, drypoint British Museum |
Nicolas Poussin died in 1665, firmly established as the most respected French artist in the world. During the century that followed, innumerable prints and copies appeared. Some claimed to reproduce the great man's features (as above) while others reproduced aspects of his works. The sheets immediately below are from a collection of etchings published around 1680. By examples taken from his paintings, they promise to teach Poussin's system of bodily proportions to the aspiring imitator.
 |
| Jean Pesne after Nicolas Poussin Book of Proportions, Plate 4 c. 1680 etching British Museum |
 |
| Jean Pesne after Nicolas Poussin Book of Proportions, Plate 3 c. 1680 etching British Museum |
 |
| Jean Pesne after Nicolas Poussin Book of Proportions, Plate 11 c. 1680 etching British Museum |
 |
| Jean Pesne after Nicolas Poussin Book of Proportions, Plate 10 c. 1680 etching British Museum |
 |
| Jean Pesne after Nicolas Poussin Book of Proportions, Plate 2 c. 1680 etching British Museum |
Below, some of the other forms taken by pastiches and tributes that poured forth all through the 18th century and into the 19th. Not until the arrival of militant machine-age modernism did artists finally stop hoping they could ever imitate Poussin. The name itself is still held in highest respect, like the name of the poet Homer, but the example has become both unreachable and irrelevant to any possible practice.
 |
| after Nicolas Poussin Anonymous copy of landscape painting, Man Washing his Feet at a Fountain 1780s wash drawing British Museum |
 |
| after Nicolas Poussin Anonymous copy of painting, Nymph discovered by Satyrs 18th century mezzotint British Museum |
 |
| after Nicolas Poussin Anonymous copy of painting, The Testament of Eudamidas 1762 etching British Museum |
 |
| Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Copy of painting, The Testament of Eudamidas early 19th century drawing Victoria & Albert Museum |
 |
| after Nicolas Poussin Copy of figure from painting, The Finding of Moses c. 1825 drawing British Museum |
 |
| Félix Bracquemond The Death of Poussin 1870 etching British Museum |
 |
| Thomas Rowlandson Venus discovered by a Satyr, after Poussin 1790s hand-colored etching British Museum |
 |
| after Nicolas Poussin Venus and Cupid with Aeneas c. 1770-1820 hand-colored etching printed in fan-shape British Museum |
I am grateful for the excellent reproductions made available by the British Museum.