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Lot Essay
The attribution of this newly discovered work by Poussin has been confirmed by Sir Denis Mahon, to whom we are very grateful; Sir Denis dates the picture to circa 1625. The history of the picture is largely unknown. A stencil on the stretcher records the fact that it was brought to Christie's in 1899 by a private owner in Cheltenham, but was neither catalogued nor offered for sale, and since then it has remained there in obscurity.
A dating to 1625 places the picture within Poussin's earliest years in Rome, a period when he was faced with the almost overwhelming wealth of artistic inspiration offered by the Eternal City. That influence is perhaps reflected here in the Roman-style bridge reminiscent of his drawing of The Ponte Molle (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, inv. no. 1430). Amongst the artist's earliest inspirations were Titian's Bacchanals, painted for the Este family and at that time in the Aldobrandini collection in Rome. Of critical importance to Poussin's development, their influence pervades the present work, from elements of the composition - the high ground on the right background surmounted by the few thin, spindly trees, balanced by that in the left foreground - to the Arcadian inspiration, placing Poussin on the same path that leads back to the young Titian and Giorgione.
In this early work one can perceive the relatively youthful artist expanding on that inherited vocabulary, and developing a form of expression that is entirely his own. Titian, for example, did not teach him to appreciate the subtleties of light passing through foliage that are rendered here with such vigour and freshness. Poussin's treatment of this effect - one that would permeate, too, the work of his contemporary, Claude - recalls in its simplicity and boldness the masterful, early study (circa 1624) of Trees at Dusk in the Musée Condé, Chantilly (inv. no. P200).
1625 was for Poussin a year characterized by a persistent need for income due to the death of Marino Marini and the frequent absences of Cassiano dal Pozzo and Cardinal Barberini. This was in part alleviated by the Genoese picture dealer Giovanni Stefano Roccatagliata, to whom he supplied many of these landscapes with nudes and Arcadian themes (see D. Mahon, 'Gli esordi di Nicolas Poussin pittore: lavore dei suoi primi anni a Roma', in the catalogue of the exhibition, Nicolas Poussin: i primi anni romani, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 1989-99, pp. 17-18). Whether or not the present work was one such is impossible to say; it does, however share many similarities with such works, for example the Landscape with Arcadian Shepherds (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, no. 1313), the Landscape with a sleeping Satyr or the Landscape from Grottaferrata of 1626 (both Musée Fabre, Montpelier). Common features include the broad, quick manner of the landscape, the smooth, clearly defined planes, the figures - in the foreground acting as a repoussoir - superimposed onto the finished landscape. The present picture, probably slightly earlier than those two, may be closer in date to the Amor vincit Omnia datable to after March 1625 (Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, inv. no. 26.26), for some time thought to be the artist's earliest Arcadian landscape. In the present work, however, Poussin has begun to open up the picture, allowing the sense of space and depth that is so clear in the later two.
The iconography of the work, not uncommonly for the artist, is uncertain. The story of Midas, here listening to Pan (?) playing the pipes, is revisited in the Midas at the source of the Pactolus (1626/7; Musée Fesch, Ajaccio). Also in the foreground are two youths, perhaps Daphnis and Chloe who were frequently represented as young shepherds, the former of whom was taught to play the pipes by Pan. Pan's identification is confused by the identification of a similar player as the young Bacchus in a copy by Lemaire (Suida Manning collection, New York) thought to be after a lost Poussin of The Infancy of Bacchus. However the figures in the middle ground recall the story of Pan and Syrinx - watched by the river god Ladon. The Landscape with Bacchus and Ceres of circa 1626 (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) in which the central male figure, wreathed in ivy, climbs up a tree, reaching out for an overhanging bunch of grapes, repeats the otherwise mysterious figures in the background of the present work.
A dating to 1625 places the picture within Poussin's earliest years in Rome, a period when he was faced with the almost overwhelming wealth of artistic inspiration offered by the Eternal City. That influence is perhaps reflected here in the Roman-style bridge reminiscent of his drawing of The Ponte Molle (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, inv. no. 1430). Amongst the artist's earliest inspirations were Titian's Bacchanals, painted for the Este family and at that time in the Aldobrandini collection in Rome. Of critical importance to Poussin's development, their influence pervades the present work, from elements of the composition - the high ground on the right background surmounted by the few thin, spindly trees, balanced by that in the left foreground - to the Arcadian inspiration, placing Poussin on the same path that leads back to the young Titian and Giorgione.
In this early work one can perceive the relatively youthful artist expanding on that inherited vocabulary, and developing a form of expression that is entirely his own. Titian, for example, did not teach him to appreciate the subtleties of light passing through foliage that are rendered here with such vigour and freshness. Poussin's treatment of this effect - one that would permeate, too, the work of his contemporary, Claude - recalls in its simplicity and boldness the masterful, early study (circa 1624) of Trees at Dusk in the Musée Condé, Chantilly (inv. no. P200).
1625 was for Poussin a year characterized by a persistent need for income due to the death of Marino Marini and the frequent absences of Cassiano dal Pozzo and Cardinal Barberini. This was in part alleviated by the Genoese picture dealer Giovanni Stefano Roccatagliata, to whom he supplied many of these landscapes with nudes and Arcadian themes (see D. Mahon, 'Gli esordi di Nicolas Poussin pittore: lavore dei suoi primi anni a Roma', in the catalogue of the exhibition, Nicolas Poussin: i primi anni romani, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, 1989-99, pp. 17-18). Whether or not the present work was one such is impossible to say; it does, however share many similarities with such works, for example the Landscape with Arcadian Shepherds (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, no. 1313), the Landscape with a sleeping Satyr or the Landscape from Grottaferrata of 1626 (both Musée Fabre, Montpelier). Common features include the broad, quick manner of the landscape, the smooth, clearly defined planes, the figures - in the foreground acting as a repoussoir - superimposed onto the finished landscape. The present picture, probably slightly earlier than those two, may be closer in date to the Amor vincit Omnia datable to after March 1625 (Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, inv. no. 26.26), for some time thought to be the artist's earliest Arcadian landscape. In the present work, however, Poussin has begun to open up the picture, allowing the sense of space and depth that is so clear in the later two.
The iconography of the work, not uncommonly for the artist, is uncertain. The story of Midas, here listening to Pan (?) playing the pipes, is revisited in the Midas at the source of the Pactolus (1626/7; Musée Fesch, Ajaccio). Also in the foreground are two youths, perhaps Daphnis and Chloe who were frequently represented as young shepherds, the former of whom was taught to play the pipes by Pan. Pan's identification is confused by the identification of a similar player as the young Bacchus in a copy by Lemaire (Suida Manning collection, New York) thought to be after a lost Poussin of The Infancy of Bacchus. However the figures in the middle ground recall the story of Pan and Syrinx - watched by the river god Ladon. The Landscape with Bacchus and Ceres of circa 1626 (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) in which the central male figure, wreathed in ivy, climbs up a tree, reaching out for an overhanging bunch of grapes, repeats the otherwise mysterious figures in the background of the present work.