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| Nicolas Poussin Moses and the Burning Bush 1641 oil on canvas Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen |
HISTORY: Commissioned by Cardinal Richelieu for the Grand Cabinet in the Palais Cardinal (later Palais Royal) in Paris; finished before November 1641; bequeathed with the palace and its contents to Louis XIII; mentioned by [André] Félibien as belonging to Louis XIV, but not listed in any of the inventories of the royal collection; perhaps, therefore, left in the Palais Royal, which had been lent to the king's brother, Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, and was given in 1692 to the latter's son Philippe, Duc de Chartres, later Duc d'Orléans and Regent during the minority of Louis XV; probably removed during the alterations made to the palace by the younger Philippe d'Orléans, and perhaps given to the King of Denmark, in whose collection it is recorded in 1761. Originally oval, the canvas was at some point made rectangular, but the additions were removed in 1960.
"Given the conditions under which Poussin worked in Paris [1640-42], it is not surprising that the paintings which he produced as a result of his official commissions are among the least attractive of his works; and yet they are of some significance in the development of his style and have more merits than are commonly allowed to them. The huge scale on which Poussin was compelled to work had both disadvantages and advantages. It led to a certain inflation, so that some of the canvases convey the feeling that they were conceived as small easel pictures and then enlarged to the scale of altarpieces. On the other hand, Poussin, realizing that he had to find his own solution to the problem of large designs and being unwilling to accept any of the Baroque formulas for this type of painting, evolved a series of compositions which are compelling in their simplicity and yet satisfy the needs of large-scale religious pictures. The design of the Moses and the Burning Bush, for instance, is based on a series of straight lines, mainly arms and legs, which define planes parallel and at right angles to each other and build up a clear composition in depth."
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| Nicolas Poussin Moses Trampling on Pharaoh's Crown ca. 1642-47 oil on canvas private collection |
HISTORY: Painted between 1642 and 1647, probably for [Jean] Pointel, in whose possession it is first recorded; bought at his death by Loménie de Brienne; belonged to Cotteblanche in 1665; bought by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay, son of the minister (died 1690); presumably passed with his collection to his younger brother, Jacques-Nicolas Colbert, Archbishop of Rouen (died 1707), and then to his nephew the Abbé de Colbert. Bought by Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, the Regent, before 1727; sold with the French and Italian pictures in the Orléans collection to Walkuers in 1792; sold by him the same year to Laborde de Méréville; bought in 1798 by Bryan for a group of English collectors; in Bryan's list of pictures for sale in 1798; bought by the 5th Duke of Bedford. The painting remained at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire until 2014, when sold by the 15th Duke of Bedford for £14 million to a private overseas collector. Protests and a public fundraising attempt failed to prevent the picture from leaving Britain.
"Some light is thrown on Poussin's relation to ancient art by the use he makes of architecture in his paintings of the 1640's and later. When possible, he bases his buildings on models which he found around him in Rome. In the background of the Bedford Moses Trampling on Pharaoh's Crown, for instance, there appears the wall of a temple articulated with Ionic half-columns, which corresponds exactly with the Temple of Fortuna Virilis in Rome; but this building is rare in being almost completely preserved, and in many cases Poussin is forced to use reconstructions of ancient monuments available in earlier writers on architecture."
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| Nicolas Poussin Moses Trampling on Pharaoh's Crown ca. 1645-48 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
HISTORY: Painted for Cardinal Camillo Massimi, with Moses Changing Aaron's Rod into a Serpent [below] as a pendant; bequeathed to his brother Fabio Camillo; bought by Alvarez in Rome and sold by him to Louis XIV in 1685.
"Poussin twice painted the story of the infant Moses trampling on Pharaoh's crown, a subject not mentioned in the Bible but taken from Josephus. It is very rarely depicted in the seventeenth century, and Poussin may have been led to it either by an interest in Josephus or by the fact that it occurred in the Speculum humanae salvationis as a type of salvation."
"In examining the paintings of the later period, we see how carefully Poussin adapts to his theme not only the gestures and poses of the people taking part, but also the general disposition of the scene. The jagged movements of the figures in the two versions of Moses Trampling on Pharaoh's Crown convey the right sense of alarm. . . . Poussin does not actually mention color in connection with the theory of Modes, but in one of the notes recorded by [Giovanni Pietro] Bellori he writes of it: "Colors in painting are a snare to persuade the eyes, like the charm of the verse in poetry." That is to say, color has to play its part in conveying the meaning of the painter, though, since it can only convey it to the eye, its share is not comparable to that of drawing, which appeals to the mind. Poussin, therefore, takes the side of disegno in the old controversy which had raged since the middle of the sixteenth century between drawing and color, and this is no doubt what [André] Félibien meant when he wrote that Poussin and Raphael "devoted themselves more to form than to color, and preferred what affects and satisfies the mind and the reason to what only appeal to the sight."
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| Manufacture Royale des Gobelins after Nicolas Poussin Moses Trampling on Pharaoh's Crown (Louvre version, image reversed) ca. 1687 wool and silk tapestry Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
HISTORY: This hanging is part of a tapestry series, The Story of Moses, after paintings by Poussin and [Charles] Le Brun, which was woven in the Manufacture Royale des Gobelins, the first set started in 1683. Its weaving was part of an artistic programme intended to spread the theory of painting promoted by the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. The Moses series was the first at the Gobelins to be derived from oil paintings which were not specifically designed for tapestry or radically adapted for this purpose. . . . The translation into a large-scale tapestry-woven hanging enabled the appreciation of Poussin's work in a more ostentatious way suitable for court spectacle, incorporating expensive materials including gold thread in the weaving (the painting measured 92 x 128 cm, the tapestry 363 x 480 cm). The set was woven six times, and [this example] is thought to have come from the third set (completed in 1687), given by Louis XV to his brother in 1716.
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| Nicolas Poussin Moses Changing Aaron's Rod into a Serpent ca. 1645-48 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
HISTORY: Painted for Cardinal Camillo Massimi, with Moses Trampling on Pharaoh's Crown [Louvre version, above] as a pendant; bequeathed to his brother Fabio Camillo; bought by Alvarez in Rome and sold by him to Louis XIV in 1685.
"The three paintings of Moses show a further link with the paintings of before 1640 in that Poussin makes use of squared marble floors to establish foreground space, a device he had employed [earlier]. The main interest of this group, however, is that they are among the most elaborate examples of Poussin's method of displaying emotions by means of gesture. In Moses Changing Aaron's Rod the gestures are relatively simple, the two prophets pointing to heaven as to the source of the miracle, and three of the Egyptian priests showing their astonishment at what is taking place. But in the two paintings of Moses trampling on Pharaoh's crown the method is more fully developed, and every degree of surprise, outraged dignity, and, in the child's mother, terror, are told by gesture. The two versions are similar in the general disposition of the figure groups, but they differ in feeling. The Bedford picture is more elegant in its forms, more decorative in its setting and smoother in its handling; the Louvre picture is more gaunt and makes fewer concessions to the spectator, and the figures – particularly the woman on the extreme right with her legs crossed – are closer to the grand classical characters who people the stage in Poussin's paintings of the 1650's."
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| Nicolas Poussin The Finding of Moses 1647 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
HISTORY: Painted for [Jean] Pointel in 1647; acquired by the Duc de Richelieu; bought from him by Louis XIV in 1665.
"The city to be seen [in the background to the two versions] of The Finding of Moses, is essentially composed of classical buildings, to which a few obelisks and pyramids – taken from the pyramid of Cestius [in Rome] – have been added to give a slightly Egyptian flavor."
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| Nicolas Poussin The Finding of Moses 1651 oil on canvas National Gallery, London and National Museum of Wales, Cardiff |
HISTORY: Painted for Reynon of Lyons in 1651; acquired by the Duc de Richelieu; exchanged with Loménie de Brienne for a landscape by Annibale Carracci before 1662; sold by Brienne to du Housset, and by him to the Marquis de Seignelay before 1685; in 1702 in the collection of Moreau, who bought if from Paillot; passed by inheritance to the Nyert family; Nyert sale, Musier, Paris, 1772. Acquired by the first Lord Clive; passed by inheritance to the Earls of Powis; sold by Powis descendants in 1988 and held jointly by the National Museum of Wales and the National Gallery, London.
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| Nicolas Poussin Moses and the Daughters of Jethro (study for lost painting) ca. 1647 drawing Royal Collection, Great Britain |
HISTORY: The original painting is lost and known only from drawings and engravings. There is no reference to the subject of this composition in the early sources.
"Paintings of Moses and the daughters fo Jethro are not unknown at the time of the Renaissance or in the seventeenth century – the most famous example is the fresco by Botticelli in the Sistine Chapel – but the manner in which Poussin treats it . . . is so abstract that it is tempting to suggest that he may have had in mind the elaborate allegory erected on it by Philo, who makes of the story a symbol of the victory of reason over the five senses."
HISTORY: Painted for [Jean] Pointel in 1648. Sold by the Duc de Richelieu to Louis XIV in 1665.
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| Nicolas Poussin Eliezer and Rebecca 1648 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
HISTORY: Painted for [Jean] Pointel in 1648. Sold by the Duc de Richelieu to Louis XIV in 1665.
The two paintings of The Finding of Moses and Eliezer and Rebecca now in the Louvre caused friction when received in Paris by Poussin's steady patron Jean Pointel. Another regular Parisian patron, Paul Fréart de Chantelou, complained that Pointel's pictures were more beautiful than the paintings he himself had commissioned from Poussin. The artist replied, "If you find the [paintings] which belong to M. Pointel so attractive, is this a reason for thinking that I did [them] with greater love than I put into your paintings? Cannot you see that it is the nature of the subject which has produced this result and your state of mind, and that the subjects that I am depicting for you require a different treatment? The whole art of painting lies in this. Forgive my liberty if I say that you have shown yourself precipitate in your judgment of my works. To judge well is very difficult unless one has great knowledge of both the theory and the practice of this art. We must not judge by our senses alone but by reason."
HISTORY: Anthony Blunt bought this picture (with money supplied by his friend Victor Rothschild) from the London dealer Duits in 1933, believing it to be an original Poussin, unrecognized as such, and possibly the painting of this subject recorded in the collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo. In 1984, the year after Blunt's death, Eliezer and Rebecca was purchased by public subscription from his estate and presented to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
HISTORY: Painted for Jacques Stella in 1649; bequeathed to his niece, Claudine Bouzonnet Stella, and by her to her niece, Marie-Anne Molandier; acquired by Sir Robert Walpole, ca. 1733; bought with the Walpole collection by Catherine II of Russia in 1779.
HISTORY: Painted for Jean Pointel in 1649. Acquired by Louis XIV from the painter Charles-Antoine Hérault in 1685.
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| Nicolas Poussin Eliezer and Rebecca ca. 1655 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
HISTORY: Anthony Blunt bought this picture (with money supplied by his friend Victor Rothschild) from the London dealer Duits in 1933, believing it to be an original Poussin, unrecognized as such, and possibly the painting of this subject recorded in the collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo. In 1984, the year after Blunt's death, Eliezer and Rebecca was purchased by public subscription from his estate and presented to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
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| Nicolas Poussin Moses Striking the Rock 1649 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
HISTORY: Painted for Jacques Stella in 1649; bequeathed to his niece, Claudine Bouzonnet Stella, and by her to her niece, Marie-Anne Molandier; acquired by Sir Robert Walpole, ca. 1733; bought with the Walpole collection by Catherine II of Russia in 1779.
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| Nicolas Poussin The Judgment of Solomon 1649 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
HISTORY: Painted for Jean Pointel in 1649. Acquired by Louis XIV from the painter Charles-Antoine Hérault in 1685.
"In the Judgment of Solomon . . . Poussin has carried still further the methods of simple presentation. The movement, though violent, is confined to the central part of the design and is very highly stylized. The two mothers are emphatic in their gesticulations, but their gestures are broad and kept parallel with the plane of the picture. Poussin's intention is made more apparent by a comparison with the drawing [directly below]. In this, the movements are freer; the baby is held by two soldiers, both of whom by their poses lead sharply into depth, and the figures on the right point violently toward the center of the composition. In the final version, the baby is held by one soldier only, seen in a strictly classical attitude; the left-hand mother is moved round, so that there is no lead into depth, and the right-hand group of onlookers is reduced to a series of verticals, although the emotions of horror are still clearly indicated by gestures. The picturesque background of the drawing, with a sort of apsed gallery filled with soldiers, has been abandoned in favor of a simple wall with two doors. Solomon, seated between two columns, is now raised to a higher point in the composition, and the gesture which he makes with his two outstretched hands, a symbol of the balance of Justice, becomes the central theme of the whole composition."
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| Nicolas Poussin The Judgment of Solomon ca. 1648-49 drawing École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris |
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| Nicolas Poussin The Exposition of Moses 1654 oil on canvas Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
HISTORY: Painted for Jacques Stella in 1654; passed by inheritance to his niece, Claudine Bouzonnet Stella, and on her death in 1697 to her niece, Marie-Anne Molandier; bought by the Duc d'Orléans before 1727; sold in 1792 with the Italian and French pictures of the Orléans collection to Walkuers, who sold them in the same year to Laborde de Méréville; bought in 1798 by Bryan for a group of English collectors; exhibited the same year for sale in London and acquired by Richard, Earl Tempest, later 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos; sold by his son, the 2nd Duke, Christie, at Stowe Park, 1848; bought A. Robertson; Francis Gibson, Saffron Walden (died 1859); bequeathed to his son-in-law Lewis Fry; by descent to Miss Margery Fry; bought from her by the Ashmolean Museum in 1950.
"Even stranger and more remote is the Exposing of Moses. Here again the tempo of what little movement occurs is of the slowest. The mother pushes off the cradle of bulrushes and looks around at her husband, her anguish expressed by the open mouth and gaping eyes of a Roman mask. He moves slowly away to the left, deep in melancholy contemplation, while in the middle the child's sister points, presumably to someone who is approaching and may come upon them before they have completed their task. She makes a gesture of silence which is a slightly simplified and stylized version of Poussin's earlier rhetorical method of expression. On the right the river god, representing the Nile, looks on impassively."
HISTORY: The picture is first traceable in Cérisier's collection, where it was seen by [Gianlorenzo] Bernini in 1665. Le Maire describes it when it belonged to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay (died 1690). Seignelay's collection was inherited by his brother Jacques Nicolas, Archbishop of Rouen, who died in 1707 and bequeathed it to his nephew, the Abbé de Colbert, later Comte de Seignelay. The picture was in the collection of Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, the Regent, by 1717, when it was seen by Thornhill. . . . It must have been sold or given away before 1727, since it is not mentioned by Dubois de Saint-Gelais in his detailed catalogue of the Orléans collection. The Esther was acquired by the Empress Catherine II of Russia between 1763 and 1774.
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| Nicolas Poussin Esther before Ahasuerus ca. 1655 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
HISTORY: The picture is first traceable in Cérisier's collection, where it was seen by [Gianlorenzo] Bernini in 1665. Le Maire describes it when it belonged to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay (died 1690). Seignelay's collection was inherited by his brother Jacques Nicolas, Archbishop of Rouen, who died in 1707 and bequeathed it to his nephew, the Abbé de Colbert, later Comte de Seignelay. The picture was in the collection of Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, the Regent, by 1717, when it was seen by Thornhill. . . . It must have been sold or given away before 1727, since it is not mentioned by Dubois de Saint-Gelais in his detailed catalogue of the Orléans collection. The Esther was acquired by the Empress Catherine II of Russia between 1763 and 1774.
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| Nicolas Poussin Landscape with Hagar and the Angel ca. 1660-64 oil on canvas (cut down) Palazzo Barberini, Rome |
HISTORY: Nothing is known of the history of this picture. It is presumably a fragment, since the tents of Abraham, to which the angel is pointing, must have been visible on the left. The attribution to Poussin was first suggested in the early 1950's by Professor Rudolf Wittkower, who discovered the work in private hands at Palazzo Altieri in Rome. Subsequently the Hagar was acquired for the nation, and consigned to the public collection at Palazzo Barberini.
– Anthony Blunt, Nicolas Poussin, (Phaidon Press, 1958) and The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin: Critical Catalogue (Phaidon Press, 1966)