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Bacchanal

ca. 1635–36
Not on view
Although he spent most of his career in Rome, Poussin was considered the greatest living French artist, and his work was avidly sought by influential French collectors. This sparkling study can be related to the Triumph of Pan (National Gallery, London) executed for Cardinal Richelieu, the French minister of state, along with a pendant depicting the Triumph of Bacchus (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City). While the finished painting depicts a scene of sensual abandon, the drawn studies reveal Poussin's cerebral process of composition, in which individual figures are treated as formal elements of a tightly knit composition based on classical ideals of beauty. Here, broad, abstracted areas of wash are used to explore the volume and spatial relations of the complex figural group that can be seen, in reversed direction, at the left side of the painting. At least four other studies for the painting survive—two at Windsor Castle, England, and two at Bayonne, France—suggesting the care with which Poussin prepared this important commission.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Bacchanal
  • Artist: Nicolas Poussin (French, Les Andelys 1594–1665 Rome)
  • Date: ca. 1635–36
  • Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over faint black chalk
  • Dimensions: 5 1/4 x 8 1/8 in. (13.3 x 20.6 cm.)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, David T. Schiff Gift, 1998
  • Object Number: 1998.225
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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Study of a Group of Trees, Nicolas Poussin French, Pen and brown ink
Study of a Group of Trees
Nicolas Poussin
Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée)
ca. 1625–50
Study of a Group of Trees, Nicolas Poussin French, Pen and brown ink
Study of a Group of Trees
Nicolas Poussin
Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée)
ca. 1625–50
Winter, Nicolas Poussin French, Engraving
Winter
Nicolas Poussin
Jean Audran
n.d.
A Male Child Lifting his Dress to Urinate Near Kneeling Women
Nicolas Poussin
1806

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