Putti fighting on Goats

Details

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)
Putti fighting on Goats
oil on canvas
13 1/8 x 15in. (33.3 x 38.2cm.)

Provenance

Richard Owen Cambridge (d. 1802).
His son, the Rev. George Cambridge, Archdeacon of Middlesex, Twickenham Meadows; Christie's, 2 May, 1824, lot 68 (8gns. to Bartie).
Purchased shortly before the Second World War by Christopher Norris.
Mrs. Pascal (formerly Mrs. Norris); Sotheby's 23 May 1951, lot 45 (to Calman).
Michael Kroyer, London.

Literature

W. Friedländer and A. Blunt, The Drawings of Nicolas Poussin. A catalogue raisonné, III, London, 1953, p. 44.
D. Mahon, Poussin's early development: An alternative hypothesis, The Burlington Magazine, CII, no. 688, July 1960, pp. 297-8.
G. Kauffmann, Beobachtungen in der Pariser Poussin-Ausstellung, Kunstchronik, XIV, 1961, p. 97.
D. Mahon, Poussiniana. Afterthoughts arising from the exhibition, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1962, II, pp. 29 and 86 (also published as a separate volume with the same pagination and an introduction, Paris, New York and London, 1962).
A. Blunt, The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin, A Critical Catalogue, London, 1966, p. 135, no. 194, pl. 194 and X-ray photograph preceding p. 184; Plates, New York and London, 1967, pl. 55.
J. Thuillier, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Poussin, Paris, 1974, p. 116, no. 331, illustrated.
A. Blunt, The Complete Poussin, The Burlington Magazine, CXVI, no. 861, Dec. 1974, p. 762.
C. Wright, Poussin Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonné, New York, 1985, no. A17.
K. Oberhuber, Poussin. The Early Years in Rome. The Origins of French Classicism, Oxford, 1988, pp. 202, 204, 278, no. 63, illustrated, and 337, under no. D144.
P. Rosenberg and L.-A. Prat, Nicolas Poussin: Catalogue raisonné des dessins, Milan, 1994, I, p. 84, under no. 45, fig. 45a.
P. Rosenberg, catalogue of the exhibition, Nicolas Poussin 1594-1665, Grand Palais, Paris, 27 Sept. 1994-2 Jan. 1995 and Royal Academy, London, 19 Jan.-9 April 1995, p. 184, under no 32, fig. 32a.

Exhibited

Paris, Musée du Louvre, Nicolas Poussin, 1960, no. 21.

Lot Essay

A preparatory drawing is in the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (Oberhuber, op. cit., p. 204, illustrated, and Rosenberg and Prat, op. cit., illustrated); this and three other drawings of mythological subjects, Jupiter and Antiope (also in the École des Beaux-Arts), Mars and Venus and Acis and Galatea (Musée Condé, Chantilly) form a group of drawings for which, with the exception of the present composition, there are no painted counterparts and which, according to Rosenberg (loc. cit.) and Oberhuber (op. cit., p. 204) may have been intended as works of art in their own right.

Clear parallels exist between the present picture and the drawing, but there are some differences: two nymphs on the left in the drawing appear to be missing from the painting although an X-ray photograph (Blunt, loc. cit.) shows almost the whole of the standing nymph and part of an arm and leg of the seated nymph to the left of the combattants. Both figures differ slightly from those in the drawing. The seated nymph holds one hand out towards the putti, and the standing one holds her right hand down instead of up. The group of trees behind the fighting putti is again different in the drawing, where the foliage appears to be more like a group of bushes. However, perhaps the most intriguing additions to the painting are a quiver and arrows at the lower left and a discarded clump of drapery at the lower right, features which are not present in the drawing and which suggest an allegorical element absent in the drawing.

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