1. Copy of Christ Healing the Blind Men.

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05/04/2012

1. Copy of Christ Healing the Blind Men.

(After Poussin) Christ Healing the Blind

Oil on Canvas, 119 x 170.2 cm.

BIRMINGHAM, Museum and Art Gallery.

Provenance.

Presented to the museum by Mrs Maud Lowndes, 1933. No further information about the history of this picture known. According to the entry on the NICE website this copy may be one of three versions recorded in the 19th century, copies 4,5,6 in Blunt's list- see below. Blunt lists the Birmingham copy as separate from these three though. The NICE record also states:

"A letter from BMAG keeper, Richard Lockett (1988) states that he considers this painting to have been done in Poussin's studio and, therefore, in Paris some time in the late seventeenth century. Another version was sold, Sotheby's, 4 April 1984, lot 270, as attrib. to Coypel. Yet another featured in the exhbition, Nicholas Poussin et Son Temps, April - May 1961, no. 9 as attributed to Bourdon (114 x 163 cms)."

This may be a copy done just after Poussin's death in 1665. Blunt noted that copies flourished after the master's death because Poussin had left hardly any paintings, and his works were in great demand. To assuage this craving, painters either copied or tried to falsify his compositions. As for the question of Poussin's studio in the late 17th century, Poussin didn't really have one, so I would rule the idea out that the Birmingham variant is a studio creation. The only person likely to have copied the original in Poussin's "studio" was his brother-in-law, Jean Dughet, though Jean was an engaver; he may have engraved the original- see below.The painting shown in 1961, attributed to Bourdon is presumably no. 2 on Blunt's list of copies? The 1984 copy attributed to Coypel was sold at Sotheby's a year after Blunt's death. Blunt includes an engraving puiblished by Coypel (Antoine?) after the painting, no. 4 below.

"Original entry in Gallery Inventory Book states that this was believed to be from the collection of Thos. Wright." More provenace research needed..

Related Works.

Original. PARIS, Museé du Louvre, Christ Healing the Blind, 1650, oil on canvas, 119 x 176 cm.

Other Copies:

1) Museé des Beaux Arts, Rheims. Bequeathed to the city by Antoine Ferrand de Monthelon in 1712.

2) National Museum, Copenhagen (560). In the inventory of the Royal Collection by 1732; then ascribed to Bourdon, but actually a free variant of Poussin’s composition by an unidentified follower.

3) Andre Le Nôtre Collection, 42 x 60 inches. Valued at 100 livres.

4) Among the pictures of the Robit and other collections exhibited for sale by Bryan in 1801-2.

5) Lord Berwick Sale, Philips, London, 15/4/1826, lot 186, bt. Lord Gower; by descent to the Dukes of Sutherland; Sutherland sale, Christie’s, London, 11/7/1913, lot 33.

6) Isaac Pittar Sale, Philips, London, 19/4/1842.

7) Anon, sale, Christies, London, 6/5/1949, gouache, signed by Henry Toutin.

8) Sold at Sotheby's 4 April 1984, lot 270, as attrib. to Coypel.

Drawings:

1) Royal Library, Windsor Castle, pen and brown ink, 151 x 220 mm.

2) Museé Bonnat, Bayonne, pen and brown ink, 110 x 196 mm.

3) Royal Library, Windsor Castle, Copy after Poussin, pen and brown ink, brown wash, 144 x 186 mm.

4) Royal Library, Windsor Castle, Copy after Poussin, pen and brown ink, brown wash, 135 x 171 mm.

Engravings:

1) By G. Chasteau.

2) By L. Audran.

3) Published by Picart le Romain.

4) Published by Coypel.

5) Perhaps by Jean Dughet or Pietro del Po. The figure group, less three disciples, without the background. A print of this engraving is to be found in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Description and Theme

The subject derives from Matthew, New Testament. Christ heals two blind men by the roadside by touching their eyes.

The Birmingham painting is one of 8 ( possibly 9) copies after Poussin’s celebrated original in the Louvre, which according to Félibien, was painted for the silk merchant Reynon in 1650. Poussin’s original was the subject of a lecture by Sebastian Bourdon given at the French Academy in 1667. As some scholars have argued (Bätschmann, Fumaroli, Packwood), there may be a link here between the science of painting and divine vision; Christ acts as a kind of “Deus Pictor” opening the eyes of the blind to the glory of nature in which God is concealed, the neo-Augustinianism of the “hidden God,” (Packwood). Unfortunately this dimension is completely lost in the Birmingham copy which lacks Poussin’s careful gradation of colours, or his expert distribution of light and shade. The grandeur of God is not manifested in the landscape of this copy.

No less interesting is the treatment of the buildings in the copy, shown above. A close inspection reveals certain alterations to architectural features. For instance the villa in the centre- which receives the most light- see below for original-has been slightly modified. It retains the rustication, but the windows on the lower floor have been eliminated. An interesting question arises because of this alteration: could the copyist be basing his changes on actual houses and architecture that he knew? As Blunt pointed out, in the original, this building is Palladian in design, but doesn’t conform strictly to the architect’s style. Poussin’s central villa lacks a pediment over its loggia resulting in a straight skyline. Intriguingly, a similar design to this building can be found in Inigo Jones’s Queen’s House at Greenwich. Poussin obviously didn’t see that, but Blunt found himself looking for a common source. He concluded that Jones and Poussin may have known a drawing of another villa without pediment, but confessed that it was “mysterious” that Poussin could have known of such a drawing.

This isn’t the only alteration the copyist made: he seems to have had an aversion to small windows since he also effaced them in the campanile in the centre, as well as in the house on the wooded slope at the back of the town- the PCF resolution isn't very good, so difficult to show this. As Cropper and Dempsey said, this cluster of buildings containing a bell tower, Christian basilica (with oculus and open loggia) signified generally the early Christian churches of Rome with their medieval towers, including Poussin’s own parish church of S. Lorenzo in Lucina or S. Giorgio in Velabro. Such a campanile appears in the back of a number of his landscapes of the 1650s, but as Blunt pointed out, Poussin probably made his own variation on buildings he knew on his walks around the district. The origins of the beautiful morning light that Poussin conveys in the original may recollect early morning walks around Rome; Bellori tells us he rose early and walked round the city for several hours.

Technical Notes

Condition of copy. Unknown. I have viewed this in the museum before, but it is currently not on show. There may be discolouration caused by dirt and varnish- but difficult to say without a technical report. The NICE report describes the copy as a "good, old and faithful copy of the original by Poussin in Louve" with "Copies of this standard unusual for Poussin's late work."

In the Birmingham copy, light doesn’t fall on the enigmatic villa, or indeed the town. In fact, the symbolic function of light is completely absent throughout; with its black storm clouds and darkened landscape, Christ looks like he’s healing the blind in a setting threatened by a thunderstorm. This may be down to the condition of the picture, although curators see this as a "good" copy. Despite this, the when looking at the Birmingham picture in its present state I get the feeling that the copyist didn’t understand the ideas behind Poussin’s original at all-, and one wonders what the source of this copy was. The original was in Reynon's collection until it passed into the collections of the Duc de Richelieu and later sold to Louis XIV in 1665, the year of Poussin's death. The following point must also be borne in mind: the picture in the Louvre isn’t in its original condition; according to Bourdon in 1667, the buildings behind Christ (i.e. the basilica complex) were highly illuminated.
As Bätschmann rightly pointed out, the most illuminated building is the mysterious villa discussed above. Bourdon can’t have seen the picture in this condition, so one wonders what has happened to this picture over time. In the Louvre catalogue of 1960 Blunt comments on its “recent restoration” which he elaborates on in his CR of 1966: when the picture was cleaned by the Louvre, “the colours were found to be unnaturally light for Poussin, and in some places almost strident.” The result led some critics to declare the Louvre painting a copy, a suggestion that has been universally rejected. Blunt upheld the attribution, pointing out that in his lecture Bourdon himself “commented on the unusual brightness of the colour, but justifies it as appropriate to the theme”. The relationship of the colour scheme to the theme has been thoroughly demonstrated by Bätschmann. Besides, Bourdon would have been able to distinguish between a Poussin copy and the original.

Additional Remarks.

Catalogued on the PCF site as “After” Poussin. In the light of the discussion of architecture above, possibly the work of a 17th copyist with knowledge of Palladian structures or buildings, though this just a hypotheosis. Possible course of action: check architectural detail in other copies and replicas, and compare with buildings in the Birmingham copy and the Louvre original which might yield interesting results. A closer look at the buildings in the copy would be useful too, when it goes back on show.

What remains unresolved about the original is why the Palladian- styled villa is illuminated instead of the buildings at the back of Christ, as Bourdon observed. Is this a result of restoration, or is there some other reason? I haven't been able to check a copy of Rosenberg's 1994 catalogue of the Paris exhibition, which might have additional notes on condition.

Relevant Literature. (N.B. This isn’t a complete list. If I come across more relevant sources I’ll post them in an update).

Catalogues

Anthony Blunt, Exposition Nicolas Poussin, (Museé du Louvre), 1960, no. 91

Anthony Blunt, The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin: A Critical Catalogue, (London,1966), no. 74.

Christopher Wright, Poussin Paintings: A Catalogue Raisonné, (London, 1984), no. 168.

Various, Catalogue of Paintings in Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, 1960.

Various, Foreign Paintings in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, A Summary Catalogue, 1983, no. 117.

Various, Masterpieces of Reality. French Seventeenth Century Painting, Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery, 1986.

Other Literature.

Oskar Bätschmann, Nicolas Poussin: Dialectics of Painting, (London, 1990), 30-39.

Anthony Blunt, Poussin Studies XII: Early Falsifications of Poussin, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 104, no. 716, November 1962, 486-498.

Anthony Blunt, Nicolas Poussin, (London, 1995, orig. pub. 1967), 238-9.

Elizabeth Cropper, Charles Dempsey, Nicolas Poussin: Friendship and the Love of Painting, (Princeton, 1996), 205-215.

Marc Fumaroli, L’Ecole du Silence: Le Sentiment des Images au XVII Siècle, (Paris, 1998), 224f.

David Packwood, unpublished PhD dissertation, Theological and Philosophical Themes in Poussin’s Art, (University of Birmingham, 2005), 267-279.

Patricia Smythe, NICE (National Inventory of Continental European Paintings) record.

Posted at 11:42 AM | Permalink

Comments

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It is a curious thing that the original picture in the Louvre was not included in the large 1994 Paris Grand Palais exhibition, where few if any critics noted its absence. I seem to recall that the picture was at that time said to be in a poor state and needing restoration, that it could not travel up the Champs Elysee to the exhibition. To see the picture, then, one had to go to a satellite show/Exposition-dossier in the Louvre itself called 'Autour de Poussin' where Gilles Chomer and Sylvain Laveissière had gathered some interesting pictures that had struggled, so to speak, to be accepted in the canon, and had usually been rejected by Blunt in 1966. Section 4 of their catalogue dealt with this picture, that had never been doubted really, and usefully reprinted the essential parts of Bourdon's 'Conférence' on the work of 1667. Chomer and Laveissière pointed out again that it had been ordered as a pendant to the London/Cardiff Finding of Moses, and the pair was later owned by Richelieu, but the latter was not acquired by Louis XIV from Richelieu. Their comments on page 82 about the reevaluation of the picture, in the light of previous research, concluded that the execution was 'almost brutal' and the colours extremely strident and Bourdon's comments, noted by Blunt, evidently remained powerful. Its omission from the Grand Palais show denied an opportunity to see it next to its pendant (No. 211), and an opportunity missed to discuss the fame of one and the neglect of the other.

Posted by: Stephen Conrad, Art Historian | 05/04/2012 at 07:19 PM

A wonderful start David, great work!

I think I can safely say I know exactly what preparing such entries is like and they are no mean feat.

Looking forward to subsequent entries...hopefully there's a copy of Et in Arcadia Ego in the PCF - I'm keen to know the history of its thematic interpretation!

Kind Regards
H

Posted by: H Niyazi | 05/04/2012 at 09:09 PM

H- Thanks. I don't think there is a copy of "Et in Arcadia Ego" on the PCF site, but they've still got a lot of ground to cover.

Stephen- Many thanks for your comments. It's interesting how some pictures fare compared to others. There obviously has been a question mark hovering over the "Blind Men", especially with the Louvre curators.

I have consulted "Autour de Poussin" but it's been a long time. I agree: an opportunity was missed by not including it in the 1994 exhibition.

Best- David

Posted by: David Packwood | 05/05/2012 at 12:48 PM

1.Apropos studio work, check on Jean Dughet's eyesight in 1660s.
2. If Nicolas Poussin could consider copying Cassiano dal Pozzo's Sacraments himself, studio copies, even autograph copies cannot be ruled out. Suppose possibly studio assistanc with finishing by Poussin?
In my mind it's an open question.
In the 1994 Conference, it was hastily supposed that because Poussin had a low opinion of copyists, that he totally disapproved of copies.
At the time, the issue of the 2 versions of the Madonna of the Steps had recently been an issue -- & also two versions of a Flight into Egypt. It ws evidently a matter for monetary anguish for collectors & pride for Museum curators that was likely to be decisive.

Posted by: Tony Green | 05/06/2012 at 12:30 AM

Many thanks Tony.

I am planning to do a series of mini essays on connoisseurship topics from time to time- the issue of copying, inc autograph copies obviously needs to be tackled.

Cheers- David

Posted by: David Packwood | 05/06/2012 at 11:27 AM

Copies, and versions, are likely to remain problematic in Poussin studies in my opinion. An example is when Blunt - in the Literature of Art in the Burlington) and Mahon, both rejected Doris Wild's assertion, made in her somewhat wayward CR, that four small pictures, 2 in Munich (Annunciation and Nativity) and the Prado (Noli Me Tangere), and a lost Deposition, later engraved by Pietro del Po were echt. I recall at a time when the RA 1995 show was closed to the public to allow a group of scholars and restorers the chance to see Mrs Johnson's version of the 1657 Flight into Egypt to be examined next to the other late figure paintings in the room (a debate that has not truly been settled by the expensive legal battle that led to the Lyons Museum acquiring the larger more impressive Pardo picture and its subsequent publication, fascinating though the huge catalogue is), that Mahon expressed the opinion that the French were "crackers" to maintain the four were right. Yet, Mahon had no doubt the Wemyss (earlier) version of the Philadelphia Baptism was by the artist. Blunt's long held view was that Poussin never repeated himself exactly, but we now know that in the early period this all but untrue because he made pictures with the same basic compositions, just differently painted, and it seems plausible that the artist may have made versions of his later works for the requirements of different patrons. This, after all, was a common practice among artists in France and Italy in the 17th century. No copies may certainly be said to be made in Rome of the first set of Sacraments in the Boccapaduli Palace until Reynolds' arranged the purchase of the set for the Duke of Rutland, when André de Muynck copied them as substitutes to aid the export of the originals, and Blunt 1966 lists fewer copies of the first series than apparently of the second. There is also the enormous problem of the huge number of missing smallish pure landscapes that were in Roman collections, many of which have been, perhaps somewhat arbitrarily, given to Gaspard Dughet, and to my mind, the 1650s is the time when Dughet comes extremely close in handling to Poussin himself; whilst in no way wishing to suggest that Dughet was incapable of originality, or was merely a 'copier' there is a sense that Poussin's pure landscape work has got muddled up with many works haphazardly attributed to Dughet. Did Gaspard ever copy a pure landscape by Nicolas? As Tony Green says above, to my mind this is an open question. Poussin's view of copyists was, I suspect, sometimes inconsistent, and whilst he may not have had a 'studio' as we think of it, it is hard to believe that copies were not occasionally made of his work with his knowledge and consent, just as he himself surely made variants of his own work to please his clients when necessary.

Posted by: Stephen Conrad | 05/08/2012 at 11:48 PM

Excellent points, which I'm processing for my projected piece on copies.

Funny you mention the Prado Noli Me Tangere- somebody just asked me about it on AHT.

Posted by: David Packwood | 05/09/2012 at 10:33 AM

I have a query. What is the primary evidence regarding the size of Poussin's studio or of Poussin not really having one? I'm probably not in the league with others who are commenting, it just makes little sense to me that Poussin could have in any respects produced the output he did in the methodical way that he did without a decent sized studio. I gather Christopher Wrights catalog takes a rather liberal approach attributing Poussin paintings, but even by more conservative estimates one has only to factor in the life of the man by the number of pictures produced to surely have to assume a modestly sized studio?

Posted by: Pasquino | 11/02/2012 at 01:22 AM

It's a very good question, and one that I've wrestled with occasionally.

There is no "primary evidence". no documents, no mention in the letters about the size of Poussin's studio.

A drawing does exist which purports to be a representation, albeit highly theoretical of Poussin's workshop.

I think that the studio would have been modest, not overlarge, perhaps the equivalent of a large study, or bedroom on the second floor. It seems tome that Poussin's operation was highly domesticated, and that might have determined the kind of art he put out.

Best- David.

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