Provenance
Lord Arundel [according to 1881 Bale sale cat.]. Marquis de Lagoy [stamp (Lugt 1710) recto, lower right, in black]. Comte Moriz von Fries [blind stamp (Lugt 2903) recto, lower left]. Sir Thomas Lawrence, c. 1820 [blind stamp (Lugt 2445) recto, lower left]. William Russel [according to Sotheby's 1918]. Charles Sackville Bale [stamp (Lugt 640) verso, lower center, in black]; sold, Christie's, London, June 9, 1881, lot 2406. Sir Edward John Poynter [stamp (Lugt 874) recto, lower left, in blue]; sold, Sotheby's, London, Apr. 25, 1918, lot 224, to Douglas. Alfred Normand, Paris, from c. 1950 [stamp (Lugt 153c) recto, lower left and verso, lower right, in purple]. Sold by Salamander Fine Arts, London, to Richard and Mary L. Gray, Chicago, Apr. 12, 2007; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.
Accession Number
202297
Medium
Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, on off-white laid paper
Dimensions
26.9 × 20.3 cm (10 5/8 × 8 in.)
Classification
drawings (visual works)
Credit Line
Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
Background & Context
Background Story
Nicolas Poussins Studies after Andrea Mantegna, Giulio Romano, and the Antique from 1635-40 is a pen and brown ink drawing with brush and brown wash on off-white laid paper that demonstrates the French painters practice of studying the works of earlier artists as the foundation of his own compositional method. Poussin, who spent most of his career in Rome studying the remains of ancient sculpture and the works of Renaissance and Baroque masters, developed his art through a process of absorptive study in which the compositions and figure types of his predecessors were internalized and transformed into the visual language of his own paintings. The three sources named in the title, Mantegna, Giulio Romano, and the Antique, represent the three pillars of Poussins artistic education: the archaeological approach to classical antiquity of Mantegna, the dynamic compositional inventions of Giulio Romano, and the sculptural authority of ancient Greek and Roman art. The pen and ink with brush and wash medium, which was Poussins preferred drawing technique throughout his career, allows him to combine the linear definition of the figures with the tonal modeling of the wash, creating studies that are simultaneously precise in their observation of the source material and inventive in their adaptation of it to his own compositional purposes. The years 1635-40 bracket the period of Poussins most intense engagement with the classical tradition, when he was producing the history paintings that established his reputation as the foremost painter of the classical style in Rome.
Cultural Impact
Poussins studies after earlier artists are foundational documents for understanding his working method and the classical tradition in French painting. The combination of Mantegna, Giulio Romano, and the Antique in a single drawing demonstrates the breadth of his absorptive study and the combinatory method that made him the model of classical composition for the French academic tradition.
Why It Matters
A 1635-40 pen and ink drawing with brown wash by Poussin studying works by Mantegna, Giulio Romano, and the Antique, demonstrating his absorptive method of combining multiple sources of classical tradition into a personal compositional language.
