90 - NICOLAS POUSSIN

NICOLAS POUSSIN Les Andelys, France 1594–Rome 1665 Landscape with Nymph and God-King, c. 1626–1628 Oil on canvas Inscribed on the stretcher: "Nicolas Poussin / 2412". Dimensions 41.5 x 54.5 cm Provenance: - Acquired in Madrid in the early 1970s from an aristocratic family. - Sotheby’s, Paris, June 14, 2022, lot 55. Recently added by Pierre Rosenberg to the catalogue raisonné of Nicolas Poussin’s paintings, this canvas is an interesting mythological composition created by the artist during his early years in Rome. The work depicts a river god reclining next to a nymph drying her hair, amidst a classically inspired twilight landscape. The identification of these figures is particularly significant, as Rosenberg directly links them to a larger composition by the French painter, known through several drawings and the description provided by Giovanni Pietro Bellori in 1672. In his biography of Poussin, Bellori describes a composition titled “La Teinture de la rose” (The Dyeing of the Rose), in which Venus and Adonis appear during a hunt. According to the mythological tale, Venus, after pricking her foot on a thorn, causes her blood to stain the roses gathered by the cupids red. Rosenberg identifies this composition as Venus and Adonis Hunting, also known as The Dyeing of the Rose. In it, Bellori expressly mentions “a river lying” next to one of the Naiads—Adonis’s nurse—as she dries her hair: precisely the two figures preserved in this work. The complete composition is known primarily through a drawing held in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle, a copy of a lost sheet by Poussin. Another related drawing, held in Paris, allows for a partial reconstruction of the original arrangement of the figures. Rosenberg’s study also incorporates information provided by X-rays of the canvas, which reveal the existence of painted elements corresponding to the original composition. The work thus constitutes exceptional evidence for the reconstruction of a painting by Poussin whose existence had been debated by art historians. For a long time, it was even considered possible that Bellori’s description corresponded only to a lost drawing and that the final composition was never executed. The discovery of this fragment allows us to reconsider this question. In his study, Rosenberg suggests that this canvas was mutilated at some point, and that certain figures were deliberately covered up to make the resulting fragment more marketable. The surviving painting should therefore be understood as part of a much larger original work. The subject matter reflects Poussin’s interest in the fables of Venus and Adonis and, more specifically, in the literary tradition of Giambattista Marino’s *Adone*, a source Rosenberg considers crucial for interpreting the composition. The choice of an unusual episode from classical mythology also reveals the young Poussin’s interest in transforming contemporary literary sources into complex, poetic mythological compositions. The inclusion of the painting in Rosenberg’s catalog raisonné is therefore a particularly significant contribution to our understanding of Poussin’s early work and allows us to partially reconstruct a composition previously known primarily from literary and graphic sources. Bibliography: - Rosenberg, Pierre, in collaboration with Christel Dupuy, *Catalog raisonné de l’œuvre peint de Nicolas Poussin*, “Dieu-fleuve et nymphe,” 2026, no. 105. - Bellori, Giovanni Pietro, *Le vite de' pittori, scultori et architetti moderni*, Rome, 1672, p. 443. - Félibien, André, *Entretiens sur les vies et sur les ouvrages des plus excellens peintres anciens et modernes*, ed. 1725, IV, p. 86.