1640
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Landscape with Saint John on Patmos is a 1640 oil by Nicolas Poussin, a Barbizon school work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
This painting shows an elderly Saint John on the island of Patmos, writing with an eagle behind him. He's depicted as an old man, which is different from the traditional view of him as the youngest disciple. The landscape around him is idealized, with natural forms shaped by geometric principles. To learn more about the use of light and dark in this painting, look up the technique of chiaroscuro.
In Christian tradition, Saint John the Evangelist is thought to be the youngest of Christ’s twelve disciples—but Nicolas Poussin depicted him here as an elderly man. The disciple has retired to the Greek island of Patmos to write the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation; he is shown at work with his attribute, an eagle, just behind him. Poussin constructed an idealized landscape, shaping natural forms according to geometric principles and reinforcing the measured order of the composition by arranging them parallel to the picture plane. The resulting serene setting is replete with…
Commissioned by abate Gian Maria Roscioli (died 1644), Rome, and paid for, with its pendant (Landscape with Saint Mathew, now Berlin, Gemäldegalerie) on October 28, 1640 for 40 écus [documents published by Barroero 1979 and Corradini 1979). Probably in a French collection by 1680 [when engraved by Louis de Châtillon, c. 1680]. François-Antoine Robit, Paris, sold Paillet and Delaroche, Paris, May 11 and following, 1801, no. 91, to Naudou acting for Michael Bryan, for Fr 7,100 [see Edwards 1996, pp. 299, 304]; sold by Bryan, probably shortly thereafter, to Sir Simon Clarke, Bt (died 1832),…
London, British Institution, Works of Ancient Masters and Deceased British Artists, 1861, no. 22. Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1–November 1, 1933, no. 226. Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1–November 1, 1934, no. 147. Art Institute of Chicago, Masterpiece of the Month, October 1939 (no cat.). The Arts Club of Chicago, Origins of Modern Art, 1940, no. 35. Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts, Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Art of Europe during the XVIth – XVIIth Centuries, 1948, no. 7. The Toledo Museum of Art, Nicolas Poussin, 1594-1665,…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Nicolas Poussin (UK: , US: , French: ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was a leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome.
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